
Class _£i^5:u. 

Book ^X_ 



SECULAR 

VIEW OF THE BIBLE 



FROM STUDIES OF THE HEBREW; WITH 
THE EVIDENCES AS TO JESUS, 



BY 



CONSTANTINE QRETHENBACH, M. A. AND T. A. O. 



AUTHOR OF 



The '* Secret of Mankind," etc. 



New York. 

PETER ECKLER, PUBLISHER, 

1902. 






COPYRIGHTED, 1902, 
BY 

Peter Eckler. 



Tme Cckler Prejj 
J5 rui TON j'r. 

New York. 



PART I. 

["According to the number of thy cities are thy gods ^ OJehudahT* 
—Jeremiah, ii ; 13.] 

[" Thus saith the Lord God unto Jerusalem, thy birth and thy nativ- 
ity is of the land of the Canaanite ; thy father was an Amorite and 
thy mother a cHittith^ — Ezekiel, 16 ; 3, 45]. 



N 



TO THE READER. 

O statement made in this book, save this sentence, 
is meant to be positive ; all is tentative, suggestive. 



It is due to God and to mankind, it is due to that universal 
and spontaneous aspiration of all men which we call 
religion, and it is due to literary art that the Bible should 
be rescued from its isolation, and made a common heritage. 
The currents of modern thought and taste, supported by 
human experiences, are leaving this most valuable and 
charming book in an eddy. We no longer read it as our 
fathers and mothers did. 

Our present translations of these writings render them 
hostile to social science. Intelligent people refuse to believe 
that God was for many centuries only beneficent to a little 
tribe or nation, who were no better, no wiser, nor more for- 
tunate than others. The story of the Jews must be regarded 
as we would that of any other people ; hence their writings 
are not more sacred than those of others. 

The Church has seen fit to declare these writings sacred, 
but it does not require us to consider the Jews themselves a 
sanctified caste. But surely the mere annals of a people, 
the secular narratives of the Bible, were never designed by 
any one to be considered as the word of God, whatever may 
be claimed for the prophecies and visions. As in case of 
all other reports of events, these narrations are subject to 
the doctrine of probabilities. 

Science, which is the kinship of facts, is forced to deny 

(iii) 



IV TO THE READER. 

that to be the word of God which solemnlj^ states that, in 
order to complete the slaughter of a fleeing foe, Joshua 
made the Sun stand still for a whole day. The Church 
itself can not wisely insist that this miracle was wrought ; 
and yet if it concedes aught on the subject, even that it is 
figurative, the whole fabric of miracle falls, since anyone 
would then have a right to construe as figurative or untrue 
the reanimation of Lazarus after his body had putrefied, or 
any other miracle or prodigy ; so that if the Church holds 
us to a belief in the miracle of Lazarus or the immaculate 
conception, we must hold it to its endorsement of the state- 
ment that Joshua stopped the Sun, for by its adoption of 
the Bible as a whole the Church has declared one assertion 
in this word of God as sacred as another. 



The Jews had a right to fancy that they were under the 
special care of God. They had a right to suppose their 
law-givers or prophets had interviews with God. Others 
besides the Jews have believed the like. Thousands of 
devotees of every land who pass a night in prayer and 
ecstacy console themselves in much the same way. 

But the mere annals of the Jews or Israelites do not show 
these annals were messages of God. Indeed, parts of the 
Jewish writings, such as the Ruth, the Esther, the Canticles, 
have not the least hint of religion, or the providential care 
of Jehoah or other name of God ; and the Church, for de- 
vout purposes, may as well have incorporated into the canon 
the " Cupid and Psyche" of Apuleius as these. And so the 
Har Epheraim stories of the Judges and other parts of the 
Jewish writings have almost as little reference to religion 
as those we have mentioned. The same may be said of the 
story of Joseph, who succeeds by his wits and not by any 
help of Jehoah. 

Hence, even if we should consider many parts of the 
Bible to be sacred, or the word of God, there are other parts 
of it which have nought to say of God or his help, and 



TO THE READER. V 

therefore cannot be by any one deemed religious, or thus 
sacred from criticism and comment. 

The purpose of all our translations, however, is to make 
of these writings a sacred book. The translations thus 
show the effect of this deliberate design. No accurate re- 
sult can be attained when such is the method. We only 
get a religious meaning when very often there is a duplicate 
and opposite meaning in the same story ; a practice which 
is the wit of Oriental story -telling. 

The prime fault, however, of our translations is that they 
are so rendered that, with the assistance of the Church au- 
thority, they cut off these writings from their natural and 
inalienable connection with contemporary cults and litera- 
ture. The religious bias isolates them. And this when 
many of the incidents are in touch with the Egyptian and 
Greek and Chaldaic literature which has survived to us. 
One may be shocked at our suggestion that Israel in the 
Ma-Debar or " wilderness " has for its basis the popular 
myth of the hero's descent into Hades, but there is certainly 
nought in the story of Shimshon or David which should 
exempt them from explanations we apply to the story of 
Heracles or Bellerophon, or the Egyptian tale of "The Two 
Brothers." It is not easy to see how anyone's salvation can 
depend on his acceptance of the statement that Joshua 
stopped the Sun or that Mosheh turned the Nile to blood 
or that Jesus cast out devils who went into the bodies of a 
drove of hogs. Is it not more sensible to rest our hopes of 
bliss hereafter on an honorable life than on our credulity 
as to these superhuman narratives ? 

Certainly, we have left to us, after so treating these nar- 
ratives, the whole of the Law and the Prophets. Adhering 
to this Law, we may continue to kill men who gather sticks 
to cook their dinner on Sunday (Num. 15: 32-36; Ex. 
35 : 2), and we may continue to kill our wives and children 
if they ask us to serve other gods than Jehoah ( Deut. 13 : 
6-10), &c. Still confiding in the " Prophets," we may con- 



VI TO THE READER. 

tinue to believe that Ezekiel saw men with 'our faces and 
four wings, and that Daniel saw lions with feathers like an 
eagle and leopards with wings like a fowl, and that Joel's 
day of Jehoah will be preceded by the darkening of the Sun 
and the Moon turned to blood. But by all means let us 
absorb into our literature, with reasonable explanations, the 
gems of antique fancy which have come to us in the stories 
from the Hebrew, so that we may leave them no longer 
stained with the soil, but cut into glittering facets, and 
sparkling in the crown of intellectual manhood, as dear to 
the Buddhist as to the Jew, to the Brahman as to the 
Christian. 



In Part II of this book will be found the sequence of a 
dissection of Hebrew story. That Jesus lived, and won 
some little following, uttered some mysterious discourses, 
created some commotion, and was put to death, seem to be 
facts which the most skeptical must admit. Whatever else 
is said of him will be found discussed or referred to herein. 
It will be seen that he is the product of the Jewish Scrip- 
tures ; that most of the incidents of his life are depicted in 
them. That he did not perform as wondrous miracles as 
Joshua or Mosheh is because he was on a real stage and was 
an actual personage. 

The ideal of Jesus is as ancient as suffering yet hopeful 
humanity. Whether applied to Jesus or to some other this 
ideal will never die. The intelligent understand that it has 
numerous names and phases. There is no mj^stery about 
it. This ideal is that of the Deliverer. It is Hope per- 
sonified. 

We shall continue to have theophanies. Has not the 
divine Mother appeared to us at Lourdes within half a cen- 
tury? There must be others as they are needed. Those 
who prepare them for our poor distraught humanity are 
their benefactors. Suppose it be true that the augurs wink 
at one another when the)^ meet ; are their beautiful devices 



TO THE READER. Vll 

the less solacing for that ? Think of the miserable myriads 
who are consoled ! It would be better, perhaps, if they would 
give us, in place of the old giant-killers, the gentle souls 
who bathe the tired feet with their tears and wipe them 
with soft hair. But this is not to say that those of us who 
pretend to possess intelligence should refuse to understand 
these social phenomena, these devices, these writings ; and 
surely the writings should be made intelligible, and only 
accepted when fairly and impartially translated. 



Note. — In our rendering of the Hebrew words and names we have 
invariably used the Heth as ** Ch," and left the He to do the office of 
our " H ; " and this seems conformable to the Egyptian rendering of 
Hebrew words, as well as the Greek usage of them. The Bible trans- 
lators have no rule on the subject, and use the Heth either way. But 
the Caph we have also used as " Ch " when perhaps it should have 
the hard sound of the Koph, which is that of *' K " or " Q " ; but thb 
latter is less important than the rule we adopt as to the Heth. 



CHAPTER I. 

PURPOSE OF HEBREW NARRATIVES. 

THE solemn endorsement of the Jewish Scriptures, now 
embodied as the " Old Testament," by the Christian 
Church must stand out forever as one of the most remark- 
able facts in the history of religions. By this act Christian- 
ity made itself liable for and guarantor of a series of 
writings not a line of which has a known author, and but 
few incidents of which are corroborated by other testimony ; 
writings which record prodigies and miracles more daring 
and more frequent than are asserted in the literature of any 
serious sort promulgated by any other people. The first 
known promulgation of this series of writings was that in 
the Greek language, called the Septuagint, which began 
with the translation of the " Law " into that tongue, perhaps 
as early as 200 B. C, but the history of which translation 
is not known. The Masoretic text of the Hebrew, in 
which rules for spelling, punctuation, and vowelling the 
consonants are laid down, is that from which English 
editions are rendered, but which Masoretic text was so 
much later than our era that Jerome at Bethlehem, who 
translated from Hebrew into Latin, about B. C. 400, did not 
use it ; so that no one can say what alterations were made 
in the original writings or when they took the precise text 
from which our translations are made, though all the books 
are understood to be enumerated by Josephus, writing at 
the close of the first century. That we possess the Hebrew 
Scriptures substantially as written seems, however, quite 

(I) 



2 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

probable, qualified as this must be by any translation from 
an obsolete language used in a distant age, and from the 
standpoint of favor which requires that a sacred book must 
be had. 

Whether or not Christianity acted wisely in incorporating 
the Hebrew Scriptures into its creed or system, and thus 
standing sponsor for numerous positions which science 
must perpetually combat, and which must ever conflict at 
many points with ethical development, can be perhaps an- 
swered in the affirmative while we have an unscientific and 
uncritical age, but must put the Church on the defensive 
should the opposite epoch arrive. Judaism can of course 
reply that Christianity has its own cross to bear in its re- 
peated assertions of the violation of natural laws, but at 
least it can be answered that these were for the advantage 
of mankind, and not alone for the behoof of a wretched hand- 
ful of obscure people upon whom the most stupendous 
miracles had no contemporary effect. In the long run, 
however, it seems very probable that Christianity will suffer 
as much as it has gained or will gain by thus chaining it- 
self to a corpse. 

But it must be said that the Jewish Scriptures often 
supply correctives to their narratives of the marvelous 
which suffice to disprove them. When we hear that Mosheh 
led six hundred thousand fighting men out of Egypt (Ex. 
12:37; Num. i: 45-46); that at Zemaraim ("fleeces" or 
"leaves") the Judeans arrayed 400,000 "valiant men of war" 
against 800,000 "chosen men" of Israel, of which latter a 
half million were killed in that battle (2 Chr. 13:); that 
Asea's 580,000 Judeans defeated one million Ethiopes (2 
Chr. 14: 8-15); that Shelomeh had one thousand wives 
and concubines (i K. 11: 3) and forty thousand stalls for 
his chariot horses (i K. 4: 26), and built a temple which he 
overlaid with gold (2 Chr. 3: 4-5), &c., we have other 
statements which almost directly deny such as these ; for 
two generations before the twelve hundred thousand 



PURPOSE OF HEBREW NARRATIVES. 3 

Hebrews are said to have met in battle at Zemaraim, David, 
sovereign of both monarchies, mustered " all the chosen 
men," and these numbered only 30,000 (2 Sam. 6:2); and 
a century after Zemaraim the king of the northern 
monarch}'-, Achab, numbered " all the people, even all the 
children of Israel, being 7,000" (i K. 20: 15), while his 
contemporary king of Judea is credited with 1,160,000 
"men of war," besides the garrisons (2 Chron. 17: 13-19). 
And Asea's host and victory over the million Ethiopes does 
not prevent his call on Damascus for protection against the 
petty sovereignty of Samaria (2 Chr. 16:1-10). In the case 
of the host of fighting men who left Egypt, under the 
special protection of Jehoah, it must seem that 600,000 val- 
iant men had no manly motive for flight or migration, and 
that their wanderings for forty years in a corner of that con- 
tinent which Alexander of Macedon set out to conquer 
with 35,000 men, requires the ecclesiastical explanation 
given it (Num. 14: 26-45) of Jehoah's displeasure. So, it 
must seem that the riches and power of the famous 
Shelomeh were not historic in great degree when we find 
he did not sufficiently pay cHiram of Tyre for the money 
and timber had of him even by ceding a district which lay 
within about sixty miles of Jerusalem (i K. 9: 11- 14); and 
when his father David fled on foot (2 Sam. 15: 30) before 
Abshalom, news of whose death came by men running afoot 
(18: 24). To these of many instances may be added the 
manifest feebleness of the Judeans when Nebuchadrezzar 
in three raids sent there only found 4600 persons he saw fit 
to carry away, which 4600 constituted the famous ''Cap- 
tivity" (Jere. 52: 27-30). 

The custom of every person and of every people is to 
glorify and magnify the exploits of their ancestors. The 
humblest as well as the most cynical are openly or secretly 
proud of a genealogy which gives consideration in the eyes 
of others. This trait is a valuable one, since it leads to 
pride, a virtue which often saves from meanness. Ancient 



4 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

writers, such as Homer, Livy, Virgil, were addicted to this, 
and Josephus is a conspicuous example. If the Jewish 
anthors of the annals of that people were innocent of this 
tendency the fact would be out of the usual order. Indeed, 
it must seem that there were especial circumstances at the 
date of the composition of the body of their writings which 
influenced this natural or social disposition. 

The special circumstances to which we refer are coupled 
with and involve the date of these writings. In a subse- 
quent chapter we shall take up the several books in detail, 
and briefly point out the internal evidences of their date ; 
but there are external evidences which are also largely con- 
clusive, and which will be mentioned as we proceed. It is, 
indeed, difficult to see how, if Jerusalem was so utterly 
burned and destroyed by the Chaldeans, B. C. 586, any 
writings then extant could have escaped destruction. 
Among the country people, and in other towns, there were 
no doubt many songs and stories of heroes and saints; 
many shrines whose devotees told of exploits and miracles ; 
for every town had its own god down to co-exile times 
(Jere. 11 : 13), as the names of the towns also attest. The 
songs of Lamech and of Deborah, that of the Bow, and the 
stories of Jakob, Gidaon, Shimshon, David, &c., were at 
best local survivals of a nebulous and incipient literature. 
If, on the other hand, the Old Testament books were written 
after the arrival of Ezra at Jerusalem, B. C. 456, save that 
portion which he brought with him as laws, it may be that 
some of it was composed in foreign lands ; in Chaldea, Egypt, 
Syria, Phoenicia, Arabia, or wherever else the misfortunes 
of their country had dispersed the Canaanites. "When 
Zion travailed," says the Isaiah (66: 8) "she brought forth 
her children " ; her literary children, we delight to under- 
stand. Adversity brings into play the intellectual faculties 
as well as the imaginative capacity. Rendered thus active, 
yet retaining certain local peculiarities, it would be natural 
that those who arose to opulence or royal favor should 



PURPOSE OF HEBREW NARRATIVES. 5 

father a literature, or claim it, which would explain their 
absenteeism, and even avouch their respectability. We 
shall, however, probably be able to see that the main body 
of the Jewish writings as we have them in the canon were 
composed for domestic purposes. 

It is curious, if this latter postulate be accepted, that 
Greek literary activity began about the same time, B. C. 
450, though its volume was far greater, vastly more varied, 
and almost equally durable, yet confined mainly to two or 
three centuries, as was that of the Jews or Canaanites; 
Herodotus, ^schylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Thucydides, 
Aristophanes, Xenophon, &c., being actually or practically 
contemporaries within that fifth century before Christ 
when it appears the main portion of our Old Testament 
canon was written. 

It must seem that the Jewish annals detail atrocities 
which in this ethical day serve to condemn rather than to 
glorify them as a people. Thus, the destruction of the 
Midianites, told in the 31st chapter of the Numbers, where 
the Hebrews claim "they slew every male" (v. 7), even 
"every male among the little ones, and every female that 
hath known man by lying with him " (v. 17), reserving 
only virgins, of whom thirty-two were awarded to Jehoah 
(vv. 40-41); this, we say, could not have been told to 
honor their ancestors. The like must be said of the loth 
and nth chapters of the Joshua, in which "all that 
breathed" were destroyed, and the 15th of i Samuel; as, 
also, the horrors committed by David on the captive 
Ammonites of Rabbah (2 Sam. 12: 31). We prefer to be- 
lieve, and think it demonstrable, that such stories as these 
were written by the Ezraites or Jehovist sect in pursuance 
and illustrative of that policy of exclusiveness inaugurated 
after the arrival from Babylon in order to prevent adulter- 
ation with surrounding peoples (Ezra 9: 1-2; Nehe. 9: 
1-2). The correction of the Midianite story is readily 
found in the Elohist statement of the Judges (6: 1-6), 



6 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

where, a few generations after Mosheh is thus said to have 
destroyed the people who cared for him when he was a 
fugitive, and one of whom he married, it is found that the 
Israelites were subjugated by the Midianites, who were " as 
locusts for multitude; they and their camels were with- 
out number " (v. 5 ) ; and hence the utter destruction of 
them recorded in the Numbers (31 :) could scarcely have 
been told save for the purpose of making them abhorrent 
to the returned Jews at a time after the '' Captivity " when 
** multitudes of camels" still bore gold and spices, and per- 
haps bevies of Midianite damsels, from Sheba to Tyre and 
Damascus (Isaiah 60: 6). The alleged destruction of 
Hazor (Josh. 11 : 10-15) is of like sort, only more glaring 
in its contradiction, as, soon after the Israelites are said to 
have destroyed that town, they were subjugated by Jabin, 
king of Hazor (Judges 4: 2-3). It will be found that this 
polity of exclusiveness is responsible for most of the dread- 
ful atrocities alleged to have been done upon the surround- 
ing peoples; responsible also for such charges as that the 
Ammonites and Moabites were descended from the incest 
of Lot with his daughters; for the story that Esav (Edom) 
sought to kill Jakob (Gen. 27: 41); that the Canaanites 
(Amorites, Jebusites, Sidonians, &c.) were under a special 
curse to be "servant of servants" (Gen. 9: 25); that 
Keturah, ancestress of the Midianites, like Hagar, ances- 
tress of the Edomites, was not "another wife " (Gen. 25: i) 
but the "concubine" (i Chron. i: 32) of Abraham. These 
and other similar atrocities and calumnies, we say, were not 
so much boasts of their own ancestry by the Jews, as they 
were the arguments of the Jehovists for home use at Jerusa- 
lem under the Ezraic polity of ethnic and sequent religious 
isolation; fostered as was this polity by such contact with 
the civilization on the Euphrates as made the neighboring 
Bedouins appear uncouth. It will be observed that the 
main Elohistic accounts are more fraternal and amicable as 
to other peoples; since we have in these the prayer of 



PURPOSE OF HEBREW NARRATIVES. 7 

Abraham for and the promise of El to Ishmael (Gen. i8: 
18-26) ; the friendship of Esav and Jakob (Gen. 33:); the 
intermarriage of Israelites with Canaanites (Judges 3: 
5-6) ; the marriage of Ruth of Moab with Boaz, of Esther 
with a Persian, and other evidences of more liberal opinions 
or of absentee authorship. 

The Jehovists or Ezraites insist that theirs was a nation 
of great antiquity, which had formerly dwelt in Egypt, and 
whose ancestors had made a contract with Jehoah (Gen. 
28: 20-22) to be his particular people; hence they were 
not to adulterate with other people. The Elohist school or 
sect, which might be called that of Jeremiah, seem to know 
little about these claims. Thus, this latter sect say the 
Israelites dwelt in Gilead three hundred years before they 
crossed the Jordan into Palestine (Judges 1 1 : 26) ; while it 
is the Ezraites or Jehovists who relate the horrible history 
of the conquest and extermination of the Canaanites. It is 
easy to suppose there were tribal movements and growth 
among the tribes or peoples about the Jordan, and that 
some family of fugitives came there from Egypt ; but that 
there was a Joshua and a wholesale conquest, attended by 
the frightful massacres recorded in the loth and nth 
chapters of the Joshua, seems to be a mere literary effort 
to illustrate the doctrine of exclusiveness which Ezra had 
promulgated. The Joshua itself, as well as the Elohist 
book, the Judges, contradicts these merciless and unequalled 
atrocities ; showing as it does that the Canaanites were not 
destroyed or removed (Joshua 9: 17-18; 13: 13; 15: 63; 
i6: 10; 17: 12), while the author of the Judges (i: 21, 27- 
36; 3: 5-6; &c.) denies the story of conquest and whole- 
sale murder. Even Rachab, the traitor-harlot of Jericho, 
seems to have been absorbed into Ezra's nation (Josh. 6 : 
25) ; but it is proper to note that moral obliquity reaches 
its ultimate when the author of the Matthew (1:5) asserts 
that this infamous woman was an ancestress of Jesus of 
Nazareth, and when the authors of the Hebrews (11 : 31) 



8 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

and the James (2: 25) seek to honor her. It also seems 
that a certain Kenite tribe of Midian became a part of the 
Israelite nation (Judges i : 16). In its arraignment of Jeru- 
salem the Ezekiel (16: 3, 45) twice charges that "the 
Amorite was thy father and thy mother a cHittith," two 
peoples who are said to have formerly occupied the country, 
but who were not descended from Abram or Jakob, and the 
charge is preferred some nine centuries after the supposed 
extirpation of the Canaanites by the famous Jehoshua. 
But the Ezra (9:1) itself, a thousand years after Jehoshua, 
shows that the Canaanites, cHittith, Perizzites, and Jebusites 
were occupying Palestine at the time Ezra himself was at 
Jerusalem, and still later the heathen were round about 
Nechemiah (Nehe. 5: 17) ; texts which are fatal to the al- 
leged conquest and extermination by Jehoshua, if not to 
the whole preceding history, at least so far as this asserts 
the supremacy there of the Hebrews, or the existence there 
of the Jews. Indeed, the Ezekiel, which professes to have 
been written during the " Captivity" by one who calls him- 
self Ben-Adam or '' son of man," possibly gave, in its 
closing chapters, the hint upon which the story of the oc- 
cupation and division of Canaan by the Hebrews was 
founded. 

It is a bold yet possible conjecture that Ezra, in writing 
the Exodus and some other parts of the Pentateuch, used 
the legend of Osiris, familiar to all the ancients as that of a 
''Deluge" (Arabic Tuphon; Heb. Shet-Aph or Ma-Bol), and 
that Isar-El in Ma-Debar or Ma-Deb-ar (trans, "wilder- 
ness") is the Egyptian Asar overcome by Seth (Gr. Ty- 
phon), as the "Mediteranean" (Heb. Acheron) annually 
drains the "cup-bearer" (Heb. Ma-Skek-ah) Nile, or 
symbolically puts it into its Aar-On or " ark," where he be- 
comes the Kann-aa (trans, "jealous"), perhaps " embalmed" 
{Ia-cHan-at)y or Cana-An god; for Ma-Deb-ar, literally 
" from-speaking " (Ex. 34 : 33), would be the land of 
" silence," though Debar is rendered " speech," " oracle," 



PURPOSE OF HEBREW NARRATIVES. 9 

" thing," " plague," while Deb-ah is " evil-report," like the 
Greek Diab-AUo or ** slanderer," whence " diabolic," and 
Debel-ah is a " cake," such perhaps as Egyptians put in the 
tomb with the dead and the Greeks into the mouth of the 
deceased for an offering to Kerberus, as in the ^neid 
(6: 419,), and so the Dub or "she-bear" which tore the 
wicked children (2 K. 2 : 24). The " Pass-over " or Pa- 
Sach, which is alleged to have commemorated the depart- 
ure of Israel into Ma-Debar, cannot be positively identified 
with Egyptian rites unless we knew better what these 
were, and because their sacred year changed entirely around 
the calendar in the course of 1460 years in consequence of 
the omission of the surplus six hours above the 365 days, 
but Pa-Usek ('' the Usek") was both a transport "boat " 
(Egyp. Oud), whence perhaps Je-hoah, and the necklace or 
collar of Osir-is; the observance of carrying the sacred 
boat toward the sea and the finding of his body beginning 
about the 9th and not the 13th of Nisan of a fixed year ; 
while, on the other hand, it has been suspected the He- 
brews or Jews worshipped at one time the foe of Osiris, 
Seth or Set, which is possibly supported by the name of 
their priestly dynasty of Zad-ok, the Egyptian form of 
which would be Sat-uk ; but it is possible also, as the name 
Ezra is apparently the same as Osir-is, that Ezra changed 
the older cult of Set or Melachzadek (" Melchizedek ") to 
that of Osir-is, as the name Aberah-Am also means " pass- 
over " {Aber), and Abera-im is our word " Hebrews." 

Howbeit, the Israelites start into the Ma-Debar, first 
stopping at Succ-oth, and they cross the Jam Suph (trans. 
" Red Sea "). They carry the bones of Jo-Seph, otherwise 
" Baal cHelom-oth the Liz-ah " (trans, "dreamer ") as his 
brothers call him, perhaps "the god who speaks in dreams," 
or interprets them, though Saph or Saph-ti was a name of 
the Egyptian deity worshipped on the Red Sea, as well as 
a name of Osir-is. They were led by Mosheh the Nebie, 
who seems under this " prophet " title to be A-Nub (Gr. 



lO SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

A-Nubis ; feminine Niobe ; Chal. Nebo). the conductor of 
souls in Egyptian theology, and represented usually with 
the head of the ''jackal" (Jl^h. Shual -, Egyp. Sabu). The 
other parts are elaborations. This allegory, applied to 
the Hebrews, had a practical purpose, perhaps, as many 
Canaanites migrated to Egypt after Nebu-Chadnezzar de- 
stroyed Jerusalem, and the purpose may have been to fetch 
them back, for it seems to have been written after the Jere- 
miah (41: 17, etc.), in whose remonstrances against that 
sojourn one finds no mention of it, and certainly the cita- 
tion of a former cruel bondage there would have been his 
most potent argument. No doubt there were other fugi- 
tives to Egypt, and the stories of deluges, descents into 
Hades or Sheol, voyages to the land of ogres and giants, 
etc., were common to the ancients; and "brought you up 
out of Mi-Zera-im " is good Hebrew for " from-Zera-im " or 
" enemies," or " from-seeds " or *' from-rocks "; the latter 
definition reminding one of the escape of Odysseus from 
Scylla (Sach-El) and Char-yb (cHoreb)-Dis, from Cycel- 
ops and Sir-ens, for he, like Joshua or Caleb, was the only 
one that survived. In the story of Osir it is only his body 
that is recovered, and this is found and cut in pieces, so 
that his soul passes into Amenti or Kar-Neter to *' judge" 
(Heb. Sheph-af; Daian) other souls, whom A-Nub brings to 
him ; and some are changed into pigs or given to Am 
(Egyp. "devourer"), the original Kerberus, while the good 
or "justified" {Cher-71 or Turn) become Osir-ei (Isira-Ael- 
ites ?) and dwell in Aal-u or Aar-u, which latter perhaps 
gave name to J-Eru-Salem. In the Greek Osiri seems Hera- 
or Era-Cles, and, after all his good works for men, he suf- 
fers while in love with lol-e, but in El-ysium he is wedded 
to Hebe, as the outlawed or aged David is to Abi-Gail or 
Abi-Shag, or Hebe-Gail and Hebe-Shag ; perhaps the Rach- 
Ab who welcomed Israel's spies whom Joshua sent out 
from Shittim or the " acacias " of which the Aar-on was 
built (Josh. 2 : i), for Hebe is the Hapi or " Nile," the 



PURPOSE OF HEBREW NARRATIVES. II 

'cup-bearer" (Heb. Ma-Shech-aK) of the Elohim or 
Olym-pus. 

That the Jews were a religious body rather than a tribe 
or family their writings show. The doctrine of exclusive- 
ness seems never to have been practiced till urged by 
Ezra and Nechemiah (13 : 1-3), and perhaps then only ap- 
plied to members of their religion. In the royal times no 
one is represented as being reproved for marriage with a 
foreigner, though little importance can be attached to that 
history. Ezra's violent remonstrance against the practice 
must appear to have been made before the command 
" Thou shalt not adulterate " was written, as he fails to cite 
it, just as Nechemiah fails to cite the Decalogue against 
the Sabbath breakers (Nehe. 13 : 15-30), for it was then 
too new to be authority ; for Ezra, the real Mosheh or law- 
giver, had then little of that sanctity which caused the 
Koran (ch. 9) to say the Jews termed him " Son of God," 
and from whose name we may have the word " Isra-El-ite." 

This command, '' Lo Ti-Neaph'' or " not adulterate," can- 
not mean the individual offense as now understood, since 
in such case there would be two commands on the same 
subject in that epitome of social law, but must be deemed 
the national inhibition as against the private inhibition not 
to covet another's wife, &c.; and at one place (Rom. 7: 7) 
Paul seems to have understood this latter command as here 
stated, while the Jeremiah (3: 8) and the Ezekiel (23: 37) 
use the term "adultery" for the worship of foreign gods, 
doubtless having Asherah in mind, but seeming ignorant of 
Ezra's Mosaic decree. The fact that Mosheh himself had 
foreigners for wives might operate to deny our construction 
if he were the author of the decalogue, but such assignment 
to him may have been made to destroy his cult, and some 
kind hand has deftly evaded the accusation by asserting 
that Mosheh was above the "prophets" (Num. 12 : 1-15); yet 
the Jehovists will have it that violation of this law brought 
a plague which slew 24,000 Hebrews (25: 1-17), while 



12 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

Mosheh, whose first wife was a Midianite, stood by and ap- 
proved the butchery of Zimri and his wife for doing what he 
himself had done. But, if this command had been ancient, 
it must seem that Nathan would have reproved David and 
Shelomeh, that Elijah would have reproached Achab, &c., 
but no one seems to have cited the decalogue against the 
practice, nor does it seem to have been a law till the time 
of Ezra and Nechemiah (Judges 3: 5-6; Ezra 9: 1-2; 10:; 
Nehe. 13: 23-31), though "strange women " were thorns 
in the flesh to Abram, to Shimshon, Shelomeh, Achab, and 
others. When the northern state fell, and its people were 
taken into Assyria, B. C. 720, no such law or custom appears 
to have prevailed, elsewise they would not have been so 
absorbed into the people among whom thej'^ were placed as 
never after, in a single case, to be heard of ; a fact which 
could not have reasonably occurred had this command been 
promulgated beforetime. 

Stress is laid by us on this law of exclusiveness, which 
Ezra made the corner stone of his state, because it gave the 
Jews or Jhoahs as a distinct and curious people to secular 
as well as religious history. The purity of the Dama (trans. 
'' blood ") or of the Zara (trans. " seed "), coupled with the 
Messianic hope of Jehoah's final care for them, seems the 
secret of their racial life even to this day ; aided as this has 
been by the pressure of the millstone of persecution and 
sequent isolation. And so, if Christianity w^ent back from 
an empty sepulchre to make a Christ, Judaism went back 
from a haughty precept to form a religion and a history. 



CHAPTER II. 

ALLEGORY OF THE EXODUS AND THE WILDERNESS. 

OUTSIDE the Pentateuch Mosheh is mentioned only 
some two score times. His miracles are practically 
unknown to the " prophets " and poets, and scarcely at all 
in the history. The great obligation Jehoah claims that 
the Jews are under to him is that he, not Mosheh, brought 
them out of "Egypt" (Mi-Zera-im). As remarked above, 
this word may have come to be known as Egypt, whom its 
people called Chem or Kem, and yet it means several other 
things, as stated, together with Me-Azor or " from-prison," 
as Azor is rendered " shut-up," and the Latin Miser or 
** misery " may represent it, as also the hot summer month 
called by the ancient Egyptians Mesore, corresponding to 
the Hebrew month Tham-Uz and the Arabic Shawwal 
(" Sheol " ?) ; so that any " bondage " or " captivity," even 
that at Babylon, may be referred to by that word. Indeed, 
it is a bold but possible conjecture that Zeru-Babel, or 
** enemy " or "seed of Babylon," may be the same as Abra- 
ham who also came out of Chaldea ; that Ezra the scribe 
was the type of Mosheh ; as Nechemiah of the militant 
Jehoshua ; since certain parallelisms exist ; for Zeru-Babel 
failed as Abraham did to establish his immigration ; and 
Ezra failed as Mosheh did ; while success was left to the 
swords of Nechemiah and Jehoshua. That Zeru-Babel and 
Ezra both brought with them a number of settlers from 
Chaldea is not altogether substantiated by the language of 

(13) 



14 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

the two peoples being so nearly the same, for that would 
be to say that the Phoenicians failed to extend their 
language, which was practically that of the Jews, and the 
two dwelt at each other's door. But, since we seem in the 
books Ezra and Nehemiah to be on historic ground, it is 
probable that this " return " is rather the movement of 
Euphratic peoples from the Persian conquest, for it is in- 
credible that the forty-six hundred people the Jeremiah 
(52 : 28-30) says were carried off, in B. C. 600-586, should 
have increased in fifty or sixty years, B. C. 535, to 49,897 
(Ezra 2: 64-65), and yet leave others to come with Ezra 
eighty years later, B. C. 456. Certainly it is admitted in the 
Ezra (2: 59) that all were not ''seed of Israel," but there 
can be little doubt that the 49,897 is a gross exaggeration, 
unless they again fled within the next century (Nehe. 7:4). 
The Ezekiel (47: 13, &c.), giving an account which seems 
to have been between the time of Zeru- Babel and Ezra, shows 
that there was a scheme of these immigrants to parcel out 
Canaan, as if these people had not before had this done ; inso- 
much that perhaps the Ezraic writer of the Joshua may have 
adopted the hint, and applied it to the figurative occupation 
said to have happened nearly a thousand years before. The 
arrogance and insolence of the new sect or people (Ezra 
4 : 1-3), and "the cry of the people and their wives against 
their brethren the Jews" (Nehe. 5 : i), coupled with the 
statement that Nebuchadnezzar left only the poorer sort in 
the land (2 K. 25: 12), indicates that some religious or 
racial distinction existed, such as those who have considered 
the Pharisees and Sadducees and Essenes of centuries later 
seem not to have reckoned with. That the worship of 
Jehoah was at this time introduced under that name seems 
to us very probable, and this as against the old worship of 
Bes or Je-Bus, or Zadok or Sat-uk; but the nature or char- 
acter of the religion introduced into the second temple, that 
of Zeru-Babel, is indelibly described in the famous 8th 
chapter of the Ezekiel, which shows that the "second 



ALLEGORY OF THE EXODUS AND THE WILDERNESS. 1 5 

temple " was a liberal Pantheon. That there was no terri- 
tory of consequence attached to the stronghold Jerusalem 
when it was overthrown by Nebu-Chadnezzar seems prob- 
able from the fact that Mizpah and its temple (Jere. 41 : 5), 
three or four miles away, seem not to have suffered at the 
same time ; but the insignificance of Jerusalem, save as a 
rocky fortress of lawless men, appears more fully when we 
find that even the daughters of the ** King " of Jerusalem 
were respected or disdained by the conqueror (Jere. 41 : 10). 
The place of detention, which seems to have been as- 
signed to the captives taken from Jerusalem by Nebu- 
Chadnezzar, appears as Sepharad (Obad, i : 20) ; supposed 
to be the great town Sippara twenty miles above Babylon. 
We are told that there the Sun was adored as a physical 
object or operator; as a disk of light, and not by anthropo- 
morphic or other symbol of force or majesty or beneficence, 
and the great temple there was called the house of Par-Ra ; 
but so there was a house of Pharaoh at Tacha-Phanes (Jere. 
43 : 9) or Ta-Caph-Anes., to which the Hebrews fled after 
the Pek-od or ''visitation." We have noticed that the 
prophet Jeremiah, in his desperate effort to prevent the 
sojourn in Egypt, says no word about the former enslave- 
ment there, nor is there any allusion to such an event by 
him or the other writers when they sum up the iniquities of 
Egypt (Jere. 46: 14-28; Isaiah 19: 1-25; Joel 3: 19; Nahum 
3: 8-10; Ezek. 30: — 32:), which three chapters of Ezekiel 
are wholly devoted to the sins of Egypt. Thus these writ- 
ings seem, from this strange omission, to be older than the 
story of the Exodus ; and yet we may be assured that not 
one of these books is older than the Chaldean inroad; so 
that it is not at all certain that Sepharad was the Euphratic 
Sippara. Possibl}^ however, the name suggested the wife 
Zipporah as well as the midwife (Ex. i : 15) Shipher-ah, in 
the Exodus story, for whom the Elohim built houses. No 
one can deny the impoitance of Sippara, since it was in that 
twin town, divided as it was by the Pur-at, that the Chal- 



l6 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

dean Noach built his boat, buried his books, and set afloat, 
as the cuneiform inscriptions tell us ; nay, more, we are told 
that its special deity was called Malik, and that its sacred 
name was Ma-Oru ; though Greek writers called it *' City of 
the Sun ; " but it is nowhere else suspected of connection 
with this record unless it was used to make odious the name 
of Baal-Ak, son of Zippar, who sent Baal-Am to curse 
Isra-el, as well as the repudiated (Ex. 18:2) wife of Mosheh, 
and even the liar Sephira of Christian story (The Acts 
5:1, &c). 




The Sha, symbol of Seth or Nub-ti (Gr. " Typhon"). 



V 



The EtaflFheld in the left-hand. The Egyptians called it Ouas and 
Sera and perhaps Tnam. 




The Tau or Tav (Egyp. Anche), or sign of ' ' Life," held in the 
right-hand of the gods. 

No animosity is shown toward Egypt in the Jewish 
Scriptures. On the contrary they are favored (Deut. 23: 
3-4', 7-8). The word Chem, the name of the country, is, in- 
deed, attacked in the incident of cHam the son of Noach, 
but that was evidently on account of the Canaanites, and 
belongs to the Ezraic policy of exclusiveness. That an 
*' ass " is called cHamor may also have some significance, 
but perhaps connected with the cult of Set or Typhon, 



ALLEGORY OF THE EXODUS AND THE WILDERNESS. 1 7 

which was superceded in Egypt, and there he was repre- 
sented with long "ears" (Egyp. At, Set, Sem, an "ear"; 
Satem, "to hear "), but as the Egyptians had no letter "D/* 
we may here find the Hebrew Ad or Ed ("witness") and 
/aaTC'hand"), lada ("wise"), all from At; and the Egyp- 
tian Set would be Sid, whence Sid-ah ("field"), and per- 
haps also the old deities Shad-ai and Zad-ok; while Sem 
was retained by the Egyptians as the name of their pontiffs 
or highest order of priesthood, as perhaps " hearer," and 
distinguished by the leopard-skin or " hairy -mantle " (Heb. 
Addereth Sha-ar), and perhaps Shem-u-El's Me- Ail or 
"robej" though the crop-eared ass which represented Set, 
was called Sha or Shea (She-Ol ?), and its lithe limbs and 
long and tufted tail, with its repose on its haunches, per- 
haps gave name to the Greek Chem-sera ; and it may be that 
it is in this connection that Shemu-El ironically calls Shaul 
cHem-eddeth (i Sam. 9: 20) if one could allow "desirable" 
as the meaning, though " Chem-Ad-ah of women" (Dan- 
11: 37) is probably Aphrodite or Adonis. But cHem is 
" father-in-law," and cHem-oth is the name applied to Na- 
Om-i in her relation to Ruth, and Na-Om-i seems Isis or 
Ceres, the Earth or Egypt in her character of Lech-Em or 
"wandering-mother," whose shrine was at Beith-Lechem or 
" Beth-Lehem," as feminine of the god Kh-Num, whose 
wife was Sati or Sa-ti. cHemor or cHem-ah is used as 
"butter" (Gen. 18: 9; Judges 5: 25; Isaiah 7: 15) as well 
as "slime," but in such connection with remarkable events 
that it perhaps has a subtle meaning, for the cHeme-Aah 
which Aimman-u-Ael (trans. "Immanuel") was to eat is 
perhaps the cHom-Ez (Ps. 69: 21) or "vinegar," as all the 
gospels understood. Chem-osh, the Shi-Kuz or Shikk-Uz 
of Moab (i K. II : 7), who had a shrine on the Mount of 
Zeth ("olive"), or Seth or Set (Egypt. Tset, "olive"), 
"where God was worshipped" (2 Sam. 15: 32), literally 
" which li-Sheta-cHavah [was the] name of Elohim," seems 
to show that in Moab as at Jerusalem Set and Chem-osh 



1 8 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

were the old ** Egypt " or Chem deity, and the Zad-ok or 
Sat-an, who gave name to or got name from Sid-on, as the 
Greek Po- or Api-Seidon may have done; but Sheta- 
cHavah (trans, "worshipped") is a feminine form, and 
cHavah is the "Eve" of Genesis, who is therefore seen to 
connect with the Athenian Athena who gave the olive to 
men, and who was recognized as the Phoenician A-Nath by 
the Greeks, daughter of II or Cronos, and as the Egyptian 
Nit or Neith of Sai or Zoan (Tanis). Chime-ham or 
Chime-han (2 Sam. 19: 37, 40) seems mysteriously con- 
nected with the resuscitation of David, insomuch that we 
suspect the "eagle" (Egyp. A-Cho7n) or hawk which typi- 
fied the risen Osir-is or his son Horus {cHar) ; and the name 
Ger-uth Chime-v-ham (Jere. 41: 17), by Beth-Lechem, 
"because of the Chaldeans," perhaps the "wise-men" of 
later story, sustains this, for Ger-uth (trans, "lodging- 
place") is evidently an Aur-ah (plural Aur-oth) or Aur- 
avah, a "manger" or "stall," where perhaps some sacred 
animal was kept in the old time when the religion of Chem 
or Egypt must have prevailed; for "G" is used as a pros- 
thetic letter as vowels were, being added in the names 
Amorrha and Azzah so as to make "Gomorrha" and 
" Gaza ;" hence we take Geruth and Auroth as the same. 

The Jewish writings are much given to covert allusions 
and double meanings ; a literary practice which might be 
expected in sacred writings or among an oppressed people, 
while changes in their religion and the violence of sect 
must have altered many terms, and caused the opposite 
meanings found in many words, vsuch as Kadesh (trans, 
"holy" and "harlot" and "sodomite"), Sachil (trans, 
"wise," "foolish"), Shadd-ai ("trans. Almighty"), and 
Shedi-im (trans, "devils"), &c. ; hence much of the transla- 
tion is due to the context, while a translation of them de- 
signed for sacred purposes can of course employ the ac- 
cordant sense. So, too, the offerings for sacrifice among 
the Jews were originally perhaps, as in Egypt, different 



ALLEGORY OF THE EXODUS AND THE WILDERNESS. I9 

animals at different places; and it seems the Jews sacrificed 
any beast save a heifer or cow, there being one exception of 
this latter (Num. 19: 9-22) ; but, besides the cow or heifer, 
the sheep was generally sacred in Egypt, while it was a 
common offering in Judea; yet the "lamb" {Sheh) slain at 
Pa-Sach bears a peculiar name, probably the same as the 
Egyptian word for "sheep" (Szu), but is close akin to the 
Seth-ic beast Sha or Shea, and the names Mo-Sheh, El- 
Ishea (the latter not being mentioned outside of 2 Kings) 
seem to respond to the former names ; and so She-Ol and 
Sha-Aul the king. 

It seems probable that Ezra and his successors, who 
built the cult of Jehoah on his valuable service in drawing 
the Israelites out of Mi-Zera-im, a thousand or so years 
before, which might seem a hypothetic setting for a relig- 
ious and social code, really had some historic basis which 
probably lies between the supposed Sippara and the actual 
Tacha-Phanes, which we suspect to be the latter as it 
means the " bound-face." Ezra's own journey from Ahava 
required four months to cover a distance of about five 
hundred miles (Ezra 7 : 9.) The Iliad, which largely sys- 
tematized Hellenic theology, was as sacred to that people 
as the Jewish writings were to them, if we allow for the 
difference in the temperaments of the two peoples, yet it 
had for its basis perhaps even less data, as Ach-Helios or 
Achilles may be merely the " bad-Sun," or perhaps carries 
the sense of the Hebrew word A-Chel (trans. " eat," " de- 
vour ") ; while the Odyssey seems framed around the con- 
ceit of a descent into Hades. 

What connection the Maccabean revolt had with the 
names in the Bible stories is not clear, but certain incidents 
or coincidents are striking, apart from the names. Since 
no miracles or prodigies occur in the history of the Mac- 
cabees, and as it occurred within historic times and under 
social or political conditions which can be understood, the 
first book seems clearly within the domain of facts. Yet 



20 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

Judas might sit for the portrait of Shaul, of Je-Pethach, of 
Gidaon, of Joab, etc. The father of Judas was of Mod-in, 
as Mosheh was of Midi-an, unknown places, meaning per- 
haps to "stand-up" {A-Mud, Dan. 12: i), as did the 
" pillar " (Ammud) of fire or clouds of Israel in the Ma- 
Debar, and the father's name was Matath-Iah, or " rods-of- 
Jah " ; and he set out, as Gidaon and his father does, by 
breaking down the images at Modin or Midian. The son 
Ele-Azer Aur-an bears not only the sinister name of the 
" god shut-up," but of the Aar-on or ** ark " in which he 
was " shut-up " {Azor), and his death by the elephant at 
Beth-Zachar-Iah, also an unknown place, seems to mean 
A-Zacher-ah or "frankincense." The son Jonathan dwelt 
at Mi-Chem-ash, where Jonathan ben-Shaul performed his 
famous exploit. Makka-Baios (Greek form) himself, the 
Micha-El or " smiter-god " or "smitten-god" of the Daniel 
(12: i), perhaps Mich-Aba or "smitten-father," killed at 
Ad-Aza (Hadas-ah, Esth. 2 : 7) or Hades, the 13th Adar, cer- 
tainly suggests the origin of Pur-im ; while his death at 
Aza seems to identify him with those gloomy things and 
persons in whose names that sinister word occurs, such as 
Az-Azel, Haza-El, La-Zarus, Azem, Zer, Gaza, &c. That 
war was a revolt of the country people, we opine ; the Jews 
of the towns having doubtless become largely Hellenized, or 
had their eyes " opened ; " Epatha and Epiphanes the Selucid 
King being much the same, and perhaps the hostility of the 
more intelligent Jews has been such as to transfer the 
names of the leaders of that struggle to their demi-gods 
of the earlier stories, for even the names of the generals of 
Epiphanes sound familiar, such as Lysias (El-Isias), Nica- 
nor (Necho ?), Seron (Sisera ?) ; while places like Ephron 
(Ephraim), Beth-cHoron, Raphon (Rephaim), &c., are 
almost equally suggestive. In the course of our account 
we shall give more particular notice to these concurrencies, 
which in some cases are very striking. 

Ezra himself is said to have been a Hebrew, and de- 



ALLEGORY OF THE EXODUS AND THE AVILDERNESS. 21 

scended from the priestly line of Zadok (Ezra 7 : 1-5). It 
is manifest error, however, for him or others to state that 
he was the son of Sera-Iah, by whom is meant a man who 
was priest at Jerusalem at its capture 130 years before 
(2 K. 25 : 18). In this respect, however, Ezra is on a foot- 
ing with Mosheh, whose mother is made daughter of Levi, 
which would render her about 250 years old when Mosheh 
was born (Ex. 6: 16-20; 12: 40; Gen. 47: 28). It may, 
of course, be answered that they were merely descended, 
and were not immediate sons ; but for personages so emi- 
nent it is not easy to accept this departure from the text. 
Besides, it appears that Ezra was not a Levite at all (Ezra 
8 : 15,) or else that the writer did not know that Aharon 
was to be so declared. Then, Ezra, like Mosheh, disap- 
pears before his work is finished ( Nehe. 13: 11), and leaves 
no sepulchre. We call attention to his name Ez-ra, which 
is perhaps Az-Ra, or that Zer-Oa, "Arm," which was out- 
stretched to fetch the Hebrews out of " Egypt," and which 
as a " hornet " {Zer-ah) was to go before them to drive out, 
&c.; and so Sera-Iyah, his father; of which Zer-Oa we 
shall speak further. The part Ezra took in framing the 
laws and ordinances may have been small, and certainly 
was of little contemporary effect, but one feels for the first 
time he has come upon historic ground, or an authentic 
personage. The book called Ezra or Ezra-Nehemiah is of 
late date (Nehe. 12 : 22, 26), Spinoza placing its date later 
than the Maccabean wars, or three centuries after Ezra's 
time ; but it seems probable he is the author of the nucleus 
of the Pentateuch, perhaps the " laws," or the substance of 
the ritual portion ; the denial of their authenticity by the 
Jeremiah (7 : 22) implying that these were originally 
wholly separate from the narrative. Josephus, who is the 
first authority for the statement that Ptolomy Philadelphus 
had these " laws " translated, copying this statement from 
an unknown Aristeas, says Ptolomy asked why this won- 
derful code had not been mentioned by any historian or 



22 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

poet, and was answered that God had afflicted with blind- 
ness those who had attempted to transcribe them ! so that, if 
one can trust the credulous Josephus, these '* laws " were 
extant or had been codified as early as B. C. 275 in very 
much their present form, and were at that time considered 
venerable. 

The denial of the divine authority of the ritual parts by 
the Jeremiah, seemingly one of the very oldest books, 
though written after the arrival (25 : 11-12), and perhaps 
after the founding of Selucia as the successor of Bab3"lon, 
B. C. 300, is of less importance than the admission by this 
book of the Exodus from " Egypt." It does not appear 
possible that these writers could overlook the inconsistency 
and anomaly of a people so insensible to the prodigies 
which their deity wrought in their behalf as to fail in their 
worship of him; wrought, too, before their eyes. Hun- 
dreds of millions of people at this day implicitly believe in 
the actual occurrence of these miracles who learn their de- 
tails from ancient and unknown authors, and when trans- 
lated out of a crude and ambiguous tongue. Even the 
priests of Egypt, who saw Mosheh turn the great Nile into 
a vast stream of blood (Ex. 7 : 20), would seem to have 
been convinced that Jehoah was an omnipotent power, 
and even a beneficent God, since they wished to have it 
flow blood (: 22). In the Jeremiah (44: 17) the people 
tell the prophet that while they worshipped the queen of 
the Heavens they had ** plenty of food, were well, and saw 
no evil "; which implies they were not an ungrateful peo- 
ple, for they returned to the worship of her, though she 
does not appear to have performed a single prodigy, or 
brought them out of " Egypt ", or written them any deca- 
logue ; though it is fair to say that Jeremiah, in his argu- 
ment to them, does not allude to Jehoah as having done 
aught for them of such kind, and seems entirely oblivious 
that he had ever brought them out of Egypt ; the point 
seeming only to be that they were deserting their local 



ALLEGORY OF THE EXODUS AND THE WILDERNESS. 23 

deity, whom, Jeremiah said, would *' watch over them for 
evil and not for good " (44 : 27) if they went to Egypt. 
And this very natural episode, which must have occurred 
about B. C. 550, serves to show that there was no history 
of the Jews at that period ; though in other places of the 
Jeremiah mention is made of the Exodus. 

The history down from Joshua to Ezra, about a thousand 
years, leaves the impression that for the first half of that 
time there was a small compact state, which rose to great 
power and dignity for a few years ; and that during the latter 
five centuries there were two petty monarchies of more or 
less consequence. As is usual, in such primitive narratives, 
it is repeatedly asserted that these people were mainly of 
descent from a common ancestor, to whom Canaan had been 
granted, and to whom had been made great promises ; but 
this claim is in pursuance of the Ezraic policy of exclusive- 
ness, for " The Amorite was thy father, and thy mother a 
cHittith." The Jahvist or Ezraic books Deuteronomy (7 : 
1-4; 20: 16-18) and Joshua (10: 40-43), in their zeal against 
adulteration of blood, declare that Jehoah commanded that 
the Canaanites should be utterly destroyed ; but this cruel 
order was not executed (Josh. 15: 63; 16: 10; 17: 12; 
Judges 3:5; Ezra 9 : 1-2) ; the book the Judges (3: 5) de- 
claring that the Israelites dwelt among the other Canaanites 
and intermarried with them ; as is seen from the Ezra that 
they did in his era. It even appears (Josh. 17 : 17) that the 
Canaanites kept, not onlj^ Jerusalem or Jebus, but the fer- 
tile plains of Jezreel and the Jordan ; and, further, that 
some years after Joshua they subjugated the Israelites 
(Judges 4 : 2-3) ; for the atrocity of the command was so 
infamous as scarcely found assertion from more than one 
writer. Even the glory of the mighty Shelomeh was found 
to be excessive, and he is made to cede a district of land in 
Galilee to the Tyrians in order to pay a timber bill (i K. 9 
1 1- 1 3); a district some sixty miles from Jerusalem which 
must have embraced Nazareth. We take all this history, 



24 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

however, as a mere filling up of an interval, mainly for 
ethnic and religious purposes, and unsupported by other 
record than the traditions which gather about shrines and 
their heroes. Its ethical or religious value at this day is 
for the worse. We shall allude to the dates of the several 
books. It is easily seen, however, from a comparison of 
the books of the Kings with the later books of the Chron- 
icles, how fast this history grew ; the pious Asa's victory 
over the million Ethiopes of Zer-ah (2 Chron. 14: 9-15), 
and the captivity of the impious Manasseh (33 : 10-13), &c-> 
being incidents unknown to the earlier and less clerical 
writer, but the Chronicles in turn reject the story of the 
rebellion of Abshalom against the pious David, and the 
stories of Elijah and Elishea perhaps because the latter 
were still worshipped at Carmel. 



CHAPTER III. 

METHODS TO ESTABLISH THE JEWISH STATE AND THE 
RELIGION OF JEHOAH. 

IT MAY thus be suspected, from their own writings, that 
the Jews are not so venerable in their nationality as is 
supposed, and almost as a corollary that their monotheism 
and Jhoaism were not ancient (Jere. 32 : 31-35). Even Ezra 
failed to organize or establish them in either respect, though 
it appears that he was empowered by Artaxerxes to embody 
them after the manner of " the wisdom of thy God which is 
in thy hand" (Ezra 7 : 23), and with the power to banish 
or kill those who did not " do the law of thy God " ( : 26). 

Nechemiah, who came thirteen years later, found the 
town again captured (Nehe. i : 3), and Ezra's work had 
come to nought. Ezra had refused to take an armed force, 
but Nechemiah made no such mistake (2 : 9) ; yet it was 
only while he was at Jerusalem that he could, even with 
soldiers, hold the people to the new doctrines (13: 4-1 1). 
Not that these doctrines as set forth at that time included 
the tedious and rigid ritual now found in the Pentateuch, 
for "a remnant " (Ezra 9 : 8) of "feeble Jews " (Nehe. 4: 2) 
could have no use for all that ; elaborated as it must have 
been years later and partly practiced when the hierarchy 
had all political power and become a sacerdotal caste. The 
Decalogue, and such historic and genealogic narratives as 
uphold its origin and promulgation, may have been all that 
Ezra wrote, though parts of the Ezekiel may be his. 

In the Decalogue we find Ezra's three particular tenets, 

(25) 



26 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

which are (i) the worship of Jehoah solely, (2) the aboli- 
tion of idols, and (3) the non-adulteration of Jewish blood. 
The worship of Allah solely and the abolition of idols was 
the reform vSet up a thousand years later by Mohammed ; 
and he too might have insisted on exclusiveness had his 
followers been a band of devotees inhabiting a rock fortress 
such as Jerusalem. And the Ezra (9 : 14) explains that 
there was a commandment against ** joining-in-affinity '* 
{cHatian ; Egyp. Heteph, " marriage ")i which is a different 
word from Neaph (trans. " adultery "), but as at Athens 
the marriage with a foreigner was perhaps deemed a con- 
cubinage. Howbeit, we repeat that this exclusiveness 
(Ezra 9:-io: ; Nehe. 13: 23-31 ; Deut. 7: 3, 6) rendered the 
Jews a " peculiar people." Doubtless Ezra was more a law- 
giver than a religious man, but he saw that a state could 
not be founded in Jerusalem while every family had its 
teraphim, every street in Jerusalem a separate altar (Jere. 
II : 13), and even in Zeru-Babel's temple the several sorts 
of gods were adored as described in the Ezekiel (8 :). The 
conditions were quite like those at Mecca a thousand years 
later. And it is more creditable to Jehoah to say that Ezra 
founded his religion than to believe that after a thousand 
or so years, and numerous miracles and prodigies, the result 
was such as the Ezekiel describes. But in no way can a 
religion be so securely encysted as by creating a cast of 
those who embrace it ; a caste cemented by the intermarriage 
of those who constitute it. And a "peculiar people " must 
have a deity peculiar to themselves. Worship of the Sun 
by its several names or attributes, and of Moon and stars, 
and the Zebe of the Heavens was forbidden for the very 
practical reason that the worship of these was common to 
**all the people under the whole Heaven " (Deut. 4 : 19) ; so 
that Jehoah as a Jewish deity only was rather other than 
monotheistic save as to them, or to Canaan if El-Kanna or 
"jealous-god" was "god of Canaan" (Ex. 20 : 5 ; Deut. 
5:9; Num. 25: 10, 13) ; possibly called -^<ji-5^^/A-^/ (trans. 



THE JEWISH STATE AND THE RELIGION OF JEHOAH. 27 

** manner ") of the land by the new people (2 K. 17 : 25-26). 
Other gods were not denied, even in the Decalogue, but the 
Jews were not to have any other. Bad stories, however, 
were told of the old local deities, as we shall see. Perhaps 
even El or Ael does not escape, or rather his sons, as we 
have the story of Eli or Ael-i (i Sam. 2 : 22) ; and so El- 
Shadd-ai (trans. " God- Almighty "), perhaps "god of the 
field" or Sid-ah (Chald. Shedi or " geni "), of whom perhaps 
Esav the Aish-Sad-ah (Gen. 25 : 27) was a type, became a 
name of " demons " (^Sked-im, Ps. 106 : 37 ; Deut. 32 : 17). 

In this interesting effort Ezra, Nechemiah, and their sect 
were necessitated, certainly, to concede somewhat. It 
seems, for instance, from the Jeremiah (11 : 13) that the 
popular name of God in Jerusalem about or before Ezra's 
time was Ba-Aal (trans. *' Baal "), a word or words which 
in Egyptian would have the meaning " Heaven-Soul," 
though Ba is *' goat " as well as *' soul " when the sacred 
goat was meant ; their usual name for " goat " {Heg or 
cHeg) giving name perhaps to Hagar and to " feast " (Heb. 
cHag) ; but in Hebrew Ba-Aal would literally be " in-the- 
ram" or " in-God," though the long '* A " or " Ain " instead 
of the short " Aleph " is used as in El or Ael. The Malech- 
eth Shemai'im (trans, "queen of Heavens") was perhaps 
more the god of the Hebrews who went to Egypt (Jere. 44 : 
15-23), to Tacha-Panes and Pa-Athor-os, though as Malach- 
ah would be " queen," Malacheth may have been understood 
as " Kingdom " by later generations who expected its com- 
ing, while her name "the Aa-Zib-ak" (trans, "worship"), 
to whom they made cakes and poured libations (Jere. 44 : 
19), indicates the "Sibyl" or "finger" {A-Zib-ae) who 
wrote the " ten words " (Ex. 31 : 18). There was, we sug- 
gest, not so much a worship of the heavenly bodies bj^ the 
ancients as is believed, but they were rather symbols or 
types of less visible powers or attributes. The Chaldeans, 
who constituted, it would seem, the mass of the immigrants 
brought by Zeru-Babel, are said to have used the Moon as 



28 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

their favorite symbol of Deity, and as male it was Hur or 
Ur-uk, which is quite consonant with the Hebrew Aor or 
" Ur " (trans. " light ") ; and Aoh was the Egyptian word 
for "Moon," so that Pha-Ra- Aoh means "the Sun and 
Moon;" but in Hebrew the Moon was Jerah or lerah, 
liar or lijah, or Laban ; and hence Jeri-cho as well as Jeru- 
salem has been suspected reasonably as named for some 
deity whose symbol was the Moon ; and hence the name lah 
or Jah or Jeh-oah, which is close to the Egyptian Aoh, and 
to the Ehieh (trans. " I am " !) who met Mosheh at cHoreb 
(Egyp. cHar-Heby " face-feast "). In assimilating with the 
" heathen " (Ezra 6 : 21), it may be that Ezra or Nechemiah 
gave or accepted the name the worshippers of the Moon- 
deity, Jer-ah, had given it (comp. Jere. 15 : 16 ; Ezra 6: 12 ; 
Nehe. 1:9), for the place seems to have been called for the 
old god Besorle-Bus, or David (Dad, the Egyptian Osir-Tat)^ 
or Zion, though the latter is probably a feminine name, as 
that of Zoan the goddess at Zoan in Egypt, called Nit or 
Neith. In the case of the seventh day, or the quarterings 
of the Moon, the book Ezra is silent as to it, and the credit 
of establishing it as a holy-day is claimed for Nechem-Iah 
(Nehe. 10: 31 ; 13: 15-21) ; an origin being assigned to the 
observance (Ex. 20 : 8-11 ) consistent with the cult of Jehoah, 
which some zealous Jehovist tried to improve upon (Deut. 
5: 15). However reformatory were the practices Ezra and 
his sect would have established, they were at the time found- 
ing or re-founding a city, and the rustics of Canaan would 
not fetch in their "oblations" to the priests (2 Chr. 31: 
10) if the old festivals and the names of these were ignored. 
There existed perhaps a cult of Mosheh. It was perhaps 
in a general way that of divination from "signs" and 
weather-portents ; its extremes being the Nebie or " proph- 
et" on the one hand and the Nachash-im or "snake- 
charmers" on the other, but possibly included astrology, or 
other occult knowledge. It seems to have been represented 
by a "serpent" {Nachash) or Pi-Then (trans, "asp"), 



THE JEWISH STATE AND THE RELIGION OF JEHOAH. 29 

called Nachush-Tan (trans, "brasen -serpent ")> ^^^ seems 
to have been a part of the worship in the ** second temple" 
(Ezek. 8 : 10; comp. 2 K. i8 : 4). The fact that no towns seem 
to be called by any form of the name Mo-Sheh is perhaps due 
to the fact that Ezra, " a ready scribe in the law of Mosheh," 
adopted a new name for him who had been known under 
others; for the town Nob-e, a "city of priests," was near by, 
Askelon which perhaps gave name to ^-Sachil-Apius was 
on the coast, and Repha-im or " physicians," "healers," had 
taken name from him, it may be; while as Nebo or Hoa he 
was a favorite deity at Babylon, and at Memphis was called 
Aimehetep the son of Pa-Tach or "Ptah," while as Es- 
Amun ("Esmun"), perhaps "true-fire" or " true-life," he 
was famous in upper Phoenicia as son of Zadik. 




The Bar-is or boat of the dead on the sacred lake, which none could cross save the 
"justified" (Egyp. Thum and cHer-u). The corpse is before the seated persons. 
The " Hebrews" (Abera-im) took their name from this fact, and so Abraham. 

The name Abraham is a mere eponym of the Aberai-im 
(trans. "Hebrews"), as Romulus is of Rome, Athena of 
Athens, &c. The Aberai-im perhaps derived name from 
the Chaldean word Iberak (trans. " immortal"), the Hebrew 
Baruch (trans, "blessed"), and in Egypt was probably re- 
ferred to those who were allowed to pass-over (Heb. Aabir) 
in the sacred boat Bari, to Aalu or Aaru or Aa-Chen ; 
though Aab-Arom in Egyptian would mean the "offering-" 
or "sacrifice-man," as Pe-Rom (Herod. 2: 143) means a 



30 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

"heaven-man." The name of hivS wife Sar-ah indicates 
that he was a form of O-Sir-is and Sar-Api, or the Assyrian 
As-Shur. In the time of Mohammed Abraham was wor- 
shipped under the form of a stone at Mecca, and called Al- 
Hobal. Tribal deities were also numerous in Canaan, and 
were likewise accounted for. All were written or re-writ- 
ten in genealogic order, or at least supplied with a historic 
setting, and in subordination to Jehoah. This was also 
done by the shrewd priests and fanciful poets of other lands 
in order to produce a monotheistic system without insult- 
ing the deities of neighboring towns or those of domestic 
sects; or, as Grote states it (i: i6), in reference to the 
theogony of Hesiod and others in Greece, ''to cast the 
divine aforetime into a systematic sequence;" Jupiter and 
Apollo, Hercules and Pluto, and the greater gods of Greece, 
being originally either separate phases of the same deity, or 
his name in separate localities or at different periods of 
time. Nought, indeed, so much attests the disintegrate 
social condition of the Canaanites or Hebrews as the 
number and variety of their deities and the late date at 
which their theogony was systematised. In Ezra's day 
every town or tribe had its separate tutelary god ( Jere. 1 1 : 
13), each of whom in that town or tribe subordinated all 
other deities; and to "blaspheme" {nekeb) the name of this 
particular deity meant an assault on the civic order. To 
this fact is due the so-called religious persecutions of all 
ages ; that against Socrates and Aristotle at Athens, as well 
as that in which "prophets" were stoned at Jerusalem, and 
Christians devoured at Rome. 

Such was the difficult enterprise begun by Ezra for his 
" remnant." True, the sword of Nechemiah was required to 
enforce the project, but within the period of a few decades 
an established hierarchy had fortified itself behind a bul- 
wark, not only of stone and mortar, but of devout litera- 
ture, consisting of history , ordinances, and song. True, 
also, the " Book of the Law" was said to have been found 



THE JEWISH STATE AND THE RELIGION OF JEHOAH. 3I 

by cHilek-Iah, ancestor of Ezra, in the temple in Josiah's 
reign (2 K. 22 : 8 — 23 : 4) ; the later Jhoaist amplifying it 
as "the book of the law of Jehoah given by Mosheh " (2 Chr. 
34 : 14) ; the oracle which adjudicated the canonicity and 
authenticity of the volume being a woman, cHul-Adah 
(trans. "Huldah"), though the incidents of this discovery 
and adjudication are nowhere else alluded to save in these 
two texts, important as they are. It is not to be supposed 
that the two centuries after Ezra was too short a time for 
these writings to come into existence in their present 
condition. 

Translations of their writings have largely assisted the 
Ezraites in their remarkable achievement. By rendering 
certain names into the language of those for whom transla- 
tions were made, and by failure to so render other names, 
and also to give their sometimes several meanings, mists 
and obscurities have arisen. The original language itself 
is obscure, partly because it is composite, as drawn from 
successive nations of conquerors, partly from the usual per- 
plexities of writings on sacred or technical subjects. It 
seems fair to say, however, that the zeal of devout scholars 
has done more to divert for pious purposes a language 
whose words often have several meanings than can be al- 
leged against the original writers, since for these several 
meanings we are only supplied with that which is suitable 
to a pious design. A rigid adherence to the lettering of 
words tends to establish linguistic relations, which would 
elucidate passages and incidents. Thus, "Ezra" should be 
Ae-Zer-Aa, and one would then remember the "hornet" 
(Ex. 23: 28; Josh. 24: 12) which was to go before the Is- 
raelites, and the sign of the " leper" {Zer-Aa) given Mosheh, 
and the Zer-Oa Ne-Tavv-Aih (Ex. 6:6), which may mean 
"arm outstretched," but as "mark" (^Tav or Tau; the 
Egyptian sign of life or cross; comp. Ezek. 9: 4-6; the 
"midst" of Isaiah 66 : 17 in the Osirian ritual) of the leper 
gave rise to the charge that the Jews were expelled from 



32 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

Egypt as lepers, though the ** white" Osir-is is the deified, 
and the incident of Mosheh's snowy hand, as well as the 
seventy-two elders at the graves of the Tav-ah (Num. ii : 
4-35) seems to allude to Seth and the seventy-two conspir- 
ators against Osiris ; but Aa is the word for the hieroglyph 
of an outstretched arm in Egyptian hieratic, and in the 
sense of **gift" perhaps. And so Ezra (8: 15) is made to 
come from A-Hava, or the river which runs to A-Hava, an 
unknown place, but the word Heva is Chaldean for 
"Heaven," and hence cHav-ah (trans. "Eve") ; and so As- 
Sur went forth, not "from that land," but "from the land 
of ha-Hava," perhaps "the Heaven," and built Nin-Eveh 
(Gen. 10: 11), for an arm stretched out from a cloud is a 
frequent symbol on the sculptures of As-Sur the great 
Euphratic deity, whose name and relative supremacy as the 
national god of Assyria was precisely like that of the 
Egyptian As-ar or Osir-is, and it was their name that Ezra 
and the Isara-El-ites bore; but when Mosheh at cHoreb 
"turned-aside" {Asur-ah) to see the burning bush he was 
told by the deity that his name was Ahieh-Ashar-Ahieh, 
which sounds very like the right name of "Ezra," Ae-Zer 
Aa, but as the name which Deity gave himself it seems to 
us that of all names it should have been left in the text 
(Ex. 3: 14), or at least Ehieh should not be "I-am" in one 
place and the precatory "O!" or "Alas!" in another, as 
Aihah-Adon-ai-Iehoah (Judges 6: 22) &c.; but we shall not 
contend that the child-god Ahi, son of Athor or Hathor, 
and a form of Har-the-child ("Har-po-Crates"), would 
apply to Ehieh so much as to Mosheh, who as very wise 
may be associated in his age with the "Moon" (Egyp. 
^^^)-god Thoth or Tachut. 

The story of Adam and his wife is pregnant with double 
meanings. He seems the same as Edom or E-Sav, both 
losing place by the wile of a woman, and through their de- 
sire to "eat" (^A-Ckel)y which word is used for sexual 
pleasure (Prov. 30: 20), as did Reuben the first-born of 



THE JEWISH STATE AND THE RELIGION OF JEHOAH. 33 

Jakob. Adam was created because " there was no Adam to 
'tiir (^Obed) the Adam-ah," or Ad-Amah, for the "mist" or 
Aad (rightly *'hand") that went up is here connected with 
Am-ah (trans, "handmaid"), since it is legitimate to read 
that Ad- Amah was sterile because an Ad went up from the 
Araz (trans. "Earth," "land," "ground") and "drew-ouf' 
or "drank" (Jux-Shek-aK) all from Ad- Amah's surface; 
though "went-up" {/ael-ak) suggests the ferocious Jael 
wife of cHeber, and her assassination of Si-Sera. But, out 
of the "dust" {Epher) thus left of the Ad- Am-ah, Jehoah 
formed Ad- Am, into whose Epher-i, which would also seem 
"dust," was breathed Nesha-Ameth, perhaps the "true- 
fire," and he became a Neph-Esh (trans, "soul;" Egyp. 
Niph, "living"; Chald. Napisii). He was then placed in 
Gan-Eden, perhaps -Adon, " garden-of-the-Lord." Here 
he "slept " {Shen), whereupon Tere- Adam-ah (trans. " deep- 
sleep") fell upon him, and one can scarcely doubt that this 
is the Egyptian ogress Taur (Gr. Thour-is), also called 
Ape-t or Ta-Ape, the "female hippopotamus" (Egyp. 
Ape)^ perhaps as representing the devastating overflow 
or the sea, as she was wife or concubine of Set or Typhon 
or Bes, and always represented as pregnant ; resembling a 
sow or bear on her behind-legs, but usually with the head 
of a hippopotamus or crocodile, or that of a full woman ; 
her black hair or bristles or stars suggesting Night ; and so 
when she fell on Abram (Gen. 15 : 12) she is called Aim-ah 
cHa-Shech-ah (trans, "horror of darkness") as feminine 
of Am or "devourer," the Egyptian Kerberus; but reall}^ 
perhaps as personifying childbirth and its pains, as Raham 
or Racham is both "womb" and "vulture/^ and it was there 
that Aber-x\m's name was changed to Aber-Raham because 
he was promised "seed" {Zarai), for the "vulture" (Egyp. 
Ur-au; whence Ta-Ur, "the vulture") was the symbol of 
motherhood in Egypt ; and we would suspect Pa-Ther-os 
(Jere. 44: 15) as her shrine but for that the definite article 
Pa is masculine; and the word Am (Heb. "mother") in 



34 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

the name of both these patriarchs suggests that they were 
bisexual at first. And so a Zela (trans, "rib"; also to "de- 
liver," as the "shadow" or Zil "delivered" or A-Zil 
cHezekiah) was taken from Adam, as the crescent Moon 
seems a rib taken from the Sun at his setting; though Jakob 
"halted" {Zol-ea) on his Jer-ach (trans, "thigh"; also 
"Moon") after he had "wrestled" {le-Bak), and in Egyp- 
tian Bak seems both "hawk" and "phallus," (the latter 
being also Me^and Ka\ Heb. Kalon). 

The appearance of the Nach-Ash or "serpent" seems a 
different version of the same story. Adam and cHavah, or 
Aish and Aish-ah, were to have no right to reproduce : the 
Creator only might do that ; but they were to have ease and 
immortality; that is, all would be light and spring, and 
Earth a cool garden. The name Nach-ash contains the 
syllable which we have as the Greek Nochs and the Latin 
Nox; but here he is a beast of the Sid-ah, as the hairy 
Esav was a man of the Sid-ah or " solitude." The serpent 
is as everywhere the symbol of life in that day, and the 
Jehovists doubtless had to contend with its cult at Jerusa- 
lem. Nachash told the woman that if the pair would eat 
fruit of a certain tree "it opened their fountains," for Ain 
means a fountain as well as an eye. So, she ate, found the 
tree was good for food, "and that Ta-Av-ah he to the 
fountains;" and the Tav or Tau or sign of life ("lust," 
Num. 1 1 : 34) seems here meant as given by the Nach-ash 
or Az (which as both "tree" and "goat" symbolizes 
fecundity, and is a word whence may come Isis, and per- 
haps Cer-Es). Her husband then ate, and were opened the 
fountains of both. They then knew they were Aei-Rum-im, 
perhaps "human" (Egyp. Rom; as "all thrones were Rem-i," 
Dan. 7: 9), and "fruitful" {Ti-Peri) "unto Te-Aen-ah," and 
they made themselves cHagor-oth or " festive." This lat- 
ter phrase must be taken in connection with the knowledge 
that Te-Aen-ah in Hebrew means both "fig-tree" or "fig" 
and "coition." The fig or "sycamore" (Heb. Sic-Amah) 



THE JEWISH STATE AND THE RELIGION OF JEHOAH. 35 

-fig. the Greek Syke, Egyptian Neha, was sacred to the 
mother of As-ar or A-Sar-is, and whose name Nu-t or Te- 
Nu"^ ("the Nu") seems to be a world-wide word, as Greek 
Ne-os, Latin No-vum, Sans. Na-va, and our "new" or re- 
"new"; and she seems the most beneficent phase of the 
Nile, as the pourer or waterer, the Hebe or "cup-bearer" 
(Heb. Ma-Shek-aK), and hence said to have "power over 
Ma-Shech-an'' (Heb. "tabernacle") or "place of new- 
birth " ; and so as Te-Aen-ah the Hebrews may have gotten 
their A in or " fountain," and the Greeks their Th-an or A- 
Tlian or A-Tkan-Aios ("without-death"), which appears 
in the name Athena and in Py-Thon, the Hebrew Pi-Then 
(trans, "asp") and Tan or Tan-in (trans, "serpent"); 
though Nu-t herself seems a concept close to Athor or 
Hathor, also "lady of the tree," but rather the abundant 
Nile; but Plutarch (Isis and Osiris, 36) says the fig-leaf 
was an emblem of Osiris, "since it somewhat resembles the 
virilities of a man." Adam and cHavah were cursed for 
this, and so was the barren fig-tree by Jesus; Jehoah ad- 
dressing cHavah as "the great barren" (Jta Rabah-Arab-aK) ^ 
rendered ^greatly multiply," but implying perhaps Ereb or 
"Night," and tells her she will bear children, for he cannot 
prevent this since he has been out-witted, but it shall be in 
great Az-ab or A-Zab (trans, "pain"); a word which 
means "to forsake," "idolatry," "hyssop," and other things, 
but perhaps the Egyptian U-Sheb-tiu is here alluded to, as 
we shall explain, though the Exodus (38 : 8 ; comp. i Sam. 
2 : 22) would seem to show that the comparison is with the 
Zeba-oth (trans, "serving- women") who "serve" {Zab-u)i 
or throes of the sibyls, with parturition (Pausanias 10: 12). 
Adam was also told that Adam-ah was cursed for his share 
in the deed, and in A-Zab-Avan (trans, "toil") he was to 
eat till he returned to Adam-ah. In toil and death must 
they pay the penalty for knowing the secret of increasing 

*Ta was the feminine, Pa the masculine, definite article, in 
Egyptian. 



36 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

their kind, or producing life ; a divine function Jehoah had 
evidently reserved for his own hands and his own breath; 
as emanations from himself only could be good. In the 
other account of this (Gen. 6: i-8), ** the- Adam" began to 
Rob (trans, "multiply"), perhaps become wise (comp. Gen. 
3 : 6) in the sense of Rabbi, insomuch that he even begat 
*' daughters"; but this was not an increase that was offen- 
sive; for these daughters were Tob (trans, "fair") or 
"good;" a quality, however, which attracted the sons of 
"the Elohim", or Heaven; a different version of which (i 
Sam. 2: 22) is where the women of the Zaba-oth attracted 
the sons of Ael-i ; and the sons of the Elohim thus became 
the "fallen" (^Nephil-im) , perhaps "Neph-El-im" "adulter. 
ated-gods," and their sons were Gibbor-im, explained as 
" from Aol-am, Ae-Nosh-i of Shem," which latter as Sem is 
a word for the Egyptian Amenti or Hades; but anyhow 
they also were immortals, and not made by Jehoah, who 
was therefore A-Zab or "grieved," and Nachem or "re- 
pented" that he had made "the Adam," for these sons of 
the Elohim or Heaven had done the same that Nach-ash 
had done, that is, enabled the human species to increase by 
a process of their own, when it was not designed that they 
should increase at all, or save by special handiwork ; and so 
Jehoah drowned them all except Noach, who found cHen 
or " favor," as Kain begot cHen-och. One point of both 
stories is that mankind do not come of the true deity. The 
word A-Zab or A-Zab-Avan is interesting, and we find that 
the U-Sheb-tiu * were images usually in the form of the dead, 
placed in their tombs, with a description of their good con- 
duct on them, and with a hoe and seed-bag in their hands, 
as if to prepare food or to toil for the deceased ; and Birch 
calls them " respondents," as ready to answer calls for help ; 
and so to allow rest, perhaps Shabb-ath, for their principal 
after his work of life ; but perhaps with the further intima- 
tion of the " return " after his "sojourn" as the Hebrew 
*The Egyptians are not accredited with the letter " Z." 



THE JEWISH STATE AND THE RELIGION OF JEHOAH. 37 

word Ti-Shib or Sheb is rendered, and so " Elijah " or Aeli- 
Jahu is a Ti-Shib-i in the mystical Gile-ad or " captivity" 
{Gal-ah), though Adam's Azab-Avan may express the 
Egyptian 02^^;2 or Unnu (" appearance," *' manifestation," 
** revelation") of A-zab, perhaps appearance of the toiler or 
demi-urge ; but Jehoah as Adonai Zaba-oth (trans, "hosts") 
will be studied in this connection, though ''lord of serving" 
would be inconsistent with labor as a curse, and it may be 
that the Adam incident is an attack on the prevalent cult of 
Nechush-Tan (trans. " brazen-serpent ") or the snake- or 
Pithen-oracle, as also on the sibyl oracles, which we take 
A-Zib-ah (trans. " worship ") to represent (Jere. 44: 19), 
and who seems the *' finger " {A-Zab-Ea) who wrote the 
ten words (Ex. 31 : 18), for the Jeremiah text seems to say 
the women had induced their husbands to join in the cult 
of her at Pa-Ther-os ; wherefore perhaps Jehoah is declared 
lord of Zabba-oth or sibyls or their oracles. There are 
probabilities, however, that the adulteration of *' blood" 
{Dama ; Chald. Adama), so bitterly assailed in the 9th and 
loth of the Ezra, is the motive of both stories, for who are 
the children of Eden which were in ** Tel-Assar" (2 K : 19. 
12-13) or *' hill of the captive " ? 

Howbeit, one may see, from this presentation of the nar- 
rative, the remarkable elasticity of the conglomerate tongue 
called Hebrew, for, without denying the existing versions, 
no Hebrew student will deny the fidelity of the one we here 
suggest so far as the language is concerned. 



CHAPTER IV. 

HIDDEN MEANINGS OF HEBREW STORIES. 

OTHER narratives are susceptible of a like varied inter- 
pretation. We have alluded to Aaberaham, the 
eponymous ancestor of the Aberai-im (trans. ** Hebrews"). 
As seen, his name may be given more than one definition. 
As Ab-Aram or " father of Syria" he may be identified with 
As-Shur, the great name of the Deity on the upper Eu- 
phrates and Tigris, but whose name is practically the same 
as that of Asar or Osiris. M. Renan would identify him 
with the Greek myth of Orcham-us, king of Assyria, whose 
daughter Leuco-Thea or " white-goddess " by Euryn-Ome 
("Uran-us-Mother"; hence Hauran), was buried alive by 
her father, but her lover Apollo poured perfumes on her 
grave in Arabia or Erebus, whence sprang then the "frank- 
incense" (Heb. Az-Achar-ah ; comp. Iz-ach-ak or "Isaac"), 
and so Ab-Orcham or " Father Orach-am " would connect 
with Orchus or Hades. He is made to come out of Aor of 
the Cassid-im, which might be ** light of holy-ones" (Ps. 
i6: lo), but the Nile is also Aor. His brother Nachor or 
Nahor suggests the Nahar or Euphrates. Another brother 
Haran suggests Aa-Haron, brother of Mosheh. Abram was 
childless till he came westward. Jehoah then gives him a 
Ber-ith (trans, "covenant") or promise of his future; con- 
necting with Bar-uch or "blessing." One day, the sun 
about to go down, he fell "asleep" {Shen), whereupon 
Tere-Dem-ah (trans, "deep-sleep") fell upon him, described 
as Aim-ah cHa-Shek-ah Gedol-ah or "horror of darkness 

(38) 



HIDDEN MEANINGS OF HEBREW STORIES. 39 

great," who is the same ogress who gave parturition to 
Adam, and perhaps the Gedolah-Aishah or " great- woman " 
of Shun-Em (2 K. 4: 8) or "sleep-mother"; and perhaps 
Ha-Gar or "the strange "-woman of Egypt, "handmaid" 
(usually Am-ah) or She-Pacheth of Sarai, and perhaps the 
Pach-ad (trans, "fear") of Isaac. In this famous Ma-cHaz- 
ah or "vision" (Gen. 15: i) Abram is required to sacrifice 
an Ae-Gel-ah (trans. " heifer"), perhaps as the sign of hos- 
tility to Egypt, or of a great calamity, as would be the 
sacrifice of a first-born. He is then told that a Gar shall 
be his seed in a land not theirs, &c. 

The teraphim, or clay idol of the household, perhaps gave 
name to Abram's father Ter-ach, as perhaps the U-Sheb-ti 
or image placed in the tomb in Egypt gave name to Seb the 
father of Asar or Osir-is, for these divine dynasties were 
formed at both ends. In the Talmud Terach is called 
Zerach ; hence in the Koran (ch. 6) he is A-Zer, for the 
Arabs seized the idea that he was an idolator, and their 
word lezer means "sin," "error"; Mohammed's reform 
being ostensibly against the sin of symbolism. This con- 
cept of duality seems to permeate the Oriental mind, and 
appears in the Aezer or " help-meet," perhaps "opposite," 
which as his wife Jehoah made for Adam ; and, apart from 
Sar-ai, both his father Ter-ach (or Zer-ach or A-Zer) and 
his Ben-Me-Shek (trans, "steward") or "son of the cup- 
bearer" El-Ie-Zer seems Abram's double or daemon, the 
Chaldean Sak-ul or " soul." Yet it must be said that the 
clay dolls or idols now found frequently in Syria are all 
female, and if they are teraphim it must seem the name 
Terach does not come from them ; but the U-Sheb-tiu of 
Egypt was of the sex of the deceased, and we suspect the 
teraphim were so. Terach is declared the last of the idola- 
trous patriarchs (Josh. 24 : 2-3), which assertion serves to 
render the eponymous Abraham a reformer ; for the Jew 
could hold as divine a temple, but that a statue was an idol; 
just as a Protestant holds that a body of anonj^mous writing 



40 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

is holy but that a cruciform is idolatrous. At times, or 
rather in places, it would seem the Jews contended that 
theirs was a " living God " as against one like Osar, who 
had come, labored for men, then suffered death because he 
had been so engaged, and the curious story of Elijah and 
the Ba-Aal-im (i K. i8 : 29) illustrates our point, while it is 
generally believed that the name Jehoah means " living" or 
"being;" and there are two or three texts which forbid 
sacrifices to the " dead " (Ps. 106 : 28 ; Lev. 19 : 28), though 
the Meth-im of the former and Teb-eth of the latter text are 
different, and the latter word is the *' ark " of Noach and 
the *' basket " in which the child Mosheh was placed, which 
rather signify preservation, or at least a *' boat " (Egyp. 
Oua) such as the Egyptian Bari in which the pious dead 
were taken across Acheron, and Oua may have given us 
Je-Hoah as Bari or Aeberah (2 Sam. 19 : 18) seems to give 
us Aberah-am and "Hebrews" {Aeberai-im) ; while the 
Aar-on or "ark" of the Ber-ith certainly indicates somewhat 
of the same sort. And so the two " he-goats " {Saair-Az- 
im), one to Jehoah and the othei to Aaza-Zel (Lev. 16 : 5-26), 
imply that there were two concepts of Deity extant at the 
same time. The Ma-Zeb-ah, or memorial " pillar," which 
corresponds in name and purpose with the Egj^ptian U-Sheb- 
tiu, and perhaps was suggestive of a " sojourn " {Sheb) as 
well as " grieved " {A-Zab), as if the deity was only dead 
or absent for a time ; and even the word Ahieh (trans. " I 
am ") has the precatory or grief {Ah- Ah) sound when in 
the burning Sen-ah, which may be the " lotus " (Egyp. 
Pi-Sheen), sacred to the youthful gods Har pa-Krut and 
Ahi. 

But the aversion to images on the part of the Jews was 
evidently very late in their history, for the winged figures, 
called Cher-ubs, which stood over the Chephor-eth (trans, 
"mercy-seat") or lid of the Aaron (ornamented with the 
Chepher as the Egyptians called the " scarabeus "), " each 
with face toward his brother " (Ex. 25 : 20), were certainly 



HIDDEN MEANINGS OF HEBREW STORIES. 41 

sacred, if not worshipped, and represented the vigil over 
the sleeping or dead or ** hidden" {cHeph) deity, who had no 
apparent image because he was in his Aaron or coffin, but 
the Cherubs were his visible type, it must seem ; nor does it 
appear that these images were ever abandoned. Indeed, 
the vulgar or untrained mind must have tangible symbols 
or totems of Deity ; somewhat that stands for the tie or 
ligament (re-ligeo) which connects them with the super- 
human help they want ; and surely, as the Genesis (i : 26- 
27) says Elohim created man in his own " image" {Zel-a^n), 
the Jews nor other people could reasonably object to a repre- 
sentation of Deity in that shape. But it can be said, since 
there is no description of the face of the Cherub, save that 
this was bowed down (Ex. 25: 18-22; i K. 6: 23-35; comp. 
Ezek. I : 1-25), that it may not have been a human face ; but 
the charge made by Apion and Tacitus, that Antiochus found 
the gold head of an ass in the sanctuary of the Jewish tem- 
ple at Jerusalem, is denied by Josephus ; and yet I-Shama- 
El and Izachar , and even Israel (Hosea 8: 9), are called 
" wild-asses," which are the swiftest of quadrupeds, and 
I-Shama-El is perhaps named for the "hearing"- (►S7z^;;2-«a) 
or "ear" (Egyp. Seni)-go&. And so Zion's Malach is to 
come on an ass (Zech. 9:9), and Jehoah rode on a Cherub 
(2 Sam. 22 : 11) ; for Typhon {Athon, " ass"?) or Set (or 
Sadok) is represented with long cropped ears, as Nub-ti at 
the city Om-Bos on the Nile is also depicted, thus shading 
into A-Nub-is, who is a less vicious phase ; but in Egypt the 
Cherubs who attended Osir were As or Hes (Isis) and her 
sister Neph-ti or Neb-ti, mystically alluded to as the " be- 
ginning " and the " end," and they were merely winged 
women, and they approximate in character to Sar-ah and 
Ha-Gar, as As or Hes the wife is mother of Har or Hor- 
us, or other noble forms of the third person, while A-Nub 
is born of Neph-ti or Neb-ti, and wears the face and long 
ears of a" fox " or " jackal " (Heb. Shual ; Egyp. Sab-u), or 
of the " hearer " I-Shema-El, the Pere or " wild-ass," or 



42 



SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 



Baal-Peor (Num. 25 :), for I-Shama-El as the A-Nub or 
"jackal" -(Sad-u)-god is born at or near Beer-Sheb-a (Gen. 
21 : 14), and the sprig of "melilotus" which betrayed the 
liason of Osir with Neph-ti, or the Nile's overflow on the 
wilderness or desert, is yet called Niphal by the Arabs. 
Aberaham is given a tomb at Ma-Caph-El-ah, with the 
"hidden-goddess" (^Caph-El-aK)^ or "hiding-tree," as 
Asir's body grew into the Aser or "tamarisk" (Heb. Elah 
or Eskul), and as Shaul was buried under the Eshul in the 
labesh or " drouth." It must seem that the Aberai-im or 
" Hebrews" already possessed him as their tribal deitj' when 
Aezeraor " Ezra " made his advent, and the fact that Abram 
was a phase or local name of Asar or Osiris was built upon 
by the Jehovists, who humanised him. They connect him, 
however, with the Latin Jove when they say that he Gav-ce 
(trans. " gave-up-the-ghost "), but Sarah as Juno and Hagar 
as lo already indicated as much. 




Osar-Sekari borne off in or by the Ma- cHet or " bea«!t-white '* • as Elijah by 
the Sear-ah or she- goat ; being the Sun in Capri-corn. The Ma-Shechan or 
"tabernacle" is beneath. 

Sar-ai or Sar-ah takes name from A-Sar or Osiris, who was 
the mutilated or "eunuch" (Heb. Sar-is) ; and from Seruah 
the wife of As-Shur, the barren Zur or " rock." She was of 



HIDDEN MEANINGS OF HEBREW STORIES. 43 

course barren, but, after she has ceased to be capable of off- 
spring, three Aenosh-im (Egyp. "wolves") promised her 
she would have a child, and so Jehoah visited her (Gen. 
21 : i). In the Egyptian story Typhon or Seth charges 
that Har or Horus is illegitimate, as Plutarch tells us ; and 
so Vulcan was Juno's child without the aid of her husband, 
and lightning begat Apis from a heifer, and cHannah had 
Shemu-El after she visited Aal-i the priest, and cHavah 
after her visit from Nachash in Eden, so that Sarai asks if 
she shall have Eden-ah (trans, "pleasure ") at her time of life. 
The stories of Ha-Gar point to north Arabia as their 
centre, or to Beith-Sheba in south Canaan. In both stories 
(Gen. 16 : and 21 :) she wanders or " walks " {I-Lack) from 
the wrath of Sarah into the Ma-Debar or "silence." In the 
Jehovist account (Gen. 16:) sheismerelj^ "conceived" {Ta- 
Har), whence the Greek Hera or Juno, when she flees, or 
is Te-Barach ("blessed") from the face of her Giber-eth. 
Malech-Jehoah then calls Hagar Rabah Arabak (trans. 
*' multiply exceedingly"), as he also calls "Eve " or cHavah, 
and tells her she is Herah or "pregnant," and will bear a 
son who shall be called I-Shema-El, which means the 
"hearing"- or (Egyptian Sem) "ear "-god; and the reason 
given (i Sam. i: 20, 27, 28), where he is made the son of 
cHannah, confirms this, for she had "asked" (^She-Ail-etK) 
him, and the words "petition," "asked," "granted" (vv. 27- 
28), are Sha-Aul or forms of it, as Sha was the Typhonian 
"ass-jackal" which represents the god Set or Sheth or 
Shadai, the same as Shaul or She-01 and Shim-shon; and 
" above the face" {Aal-Pan-i) of all his brothers it [the ear] 
dwelleth (Gen. 16 : 12) ; hence the well Lachai Roi connects 
with the Lechai or "jawbone" of the Shim-shon "ass" or 
Chamor, and with Shaul's search for his father's asses. It 
is singular that the "sceptre" (Egyp. Oitas or Skem) 
usually found in the left hand of the Egyptian gods, bears 
the head of the Sha, said to be the emblem of "purity," 
but, as the right hand holds the Tau or emblem of life, we 



44 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

suggest that it was that of the ''hearing-" or "ear "-god 
who instigates to morality by reminding one of the " grave " 
(Heb. She-Ol) and of Set as Nub-ti or A-Nub-is; and even 
Egyptian peasants carried this staff; but it is perhaps not 
the She-Bat or ** sceptre" (Gen. 49: 10) of Je-Hud-ah 
(trans. ** only-son"), as ''^ot I-Sur Sheb-Ai" seems here the 
"crook" (Egyp. At or Hat) of the Egyptian Har pa- 
Cherat, the Pa-Sach god, begotten by Asar after death, as the 
Ma-cHeokk or ''ruler's staff" is the flagellum or "scourge" 
(Egyp. Ne-Chech or Chech', "fan," Mat. 3: 12; "scourge," 
John 2: 15), for he represents the second life, and these 
were his particular emblems; said to mean, the flail 
"majesty," the crook "dominion," both perhaps agriculture; 
cHoch being Shim-shon's ".strength," as Reuben was 
Jakob's " might " or cHoch, the excellence of his She-Ath 
(Gen. 49: i) ; the month Choak when the Nile is retreating, 
and the hieroglyph Chek being the phallus of a lion, whence 
the Greek Hek-ate. 

In the Elohist version (Gen. 21: 9-21) I-Sheraa-El is a 
boy when Sarah finds him Me-Zachek (trans, "mocking"), 
which is the same word used (Gen. 26: 8) for Izachak 
"sporting" with his wife. Sarah insists that Abraham 
cast-out "the Aam-ah the Zo-ath" (trans, "bond- woman 
this"), or the Aam-ah "the wanderer," and her son; so that 
here w^e come upon the feminine Am or Kerberus of the 
Egyptians; the Taur or Tere-Damah, concubine of Seth. 
So, Abraham gave bread and a cHam-eth of water to Ha- 
Gar, " put upon Shi-Chem-ah and the child," and one may 
possibly read "shoulder" after what we have said. She 
then Atheth-Aa (trans, "wandered") in Ma-Debar of Beer- 
Sha-Baa or Shab-Aa, for in Egypt the Shu- Abu or Persea- 
tree was sacred to Athor, who is pictured as giving bread 
and water out of the "sycamore" (Heb. Shik-Em-ak). At 
this border-place, the Chim-ath being consumed, she cast 
the child under one of the Sichim, by which we understand 
" sycamore." Then she sat a bow-shot off and wept ; but 



HIDDEN MEANINGS OF HEBREW STORIES. 45 

Elohim or Male-ach Elohim appeared, saying El-Thire-Ai 
(trans. " do-not -fear"), &c., just as he had said El-Thir-Aa 
to Abraham (Gen. 15 : 15), but the allusion to Taur may be 
to himself as "terror-god" or Taur. The child became a 
Rob-ah Kasheth (trans, "archer "), which reminds us that the 
Rob (trans, "multiply") of Noach's time (Gen. 6:1) must 
be somewhat else. The John Gospel (4 : 5-43) seems to 
have understood this story as alluding to Shechem or Sych- 
ar, a town of Samaria by Mount Ger-Az-im, since another 
"stranger" i^Ger) and Me-Siach stops at a well there, asks 
a concubine for water, and tells her of the water of life- 
eternal ; whereupon she calls him a " prophet," as Hagar 
calls Malach Elohim a Roi, perhaps Roeh or "seer." The 
Jews, hostile to Shechem and the Samaritans, had an ugly 
story about the place, charging that Shechem the son of 
cHamor ("ass") had ravished Din-ah the daughter of 
Jakob, and it is probable that She-Chem was a shrine of 
the " Sha of Egypt " or Chem, the sphinx-type of Seth or 
Typhon, whom Horns the son of Osar and Isi defeated 
after a battle of three days or on the third day ; for Hagar 
herself probably derives her name from the Egyptian word 
Heg-t("goat"). 

The names which are rendered " tree," " oak," "tamar- 
isk," " terebinth," &c., are also confusing. Thus, Askerak 
(trans, "grove"), sacred to some deity, may represent 
Aishah-Herah, " woman-pregnant," which is the form of 
the Egyptian Taur or Ape-t. The word Az (trans, "goat,*' 
and " strong") is also " tree," while As or Asi is " Isis." And 
so El, Elah, Elon, Eloth, Allah, AUon, Ilan, are used for 
some species of "tree." It might be inferred that tree- 
divination, as by the Greek Dryads and Celtic Druids, was 
practiced, if direct evidence was lacking (2 Sam. 5 : 24) ; the 
Becha-im (trans, "mulberry") there possibly meaning the 
"quince" (Egyp. Baq^ and so Aall-On Bachuth (Gen. 35: 
8) seems an " oracle " (Debir) or Debor-ah of Re-Bek-ah, 
personified (Judges 4: 4, &c.) as sitting Tach-ath-Tamar 



46 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

(trans, "under the palm-tree"), but this sitting T-Amar 
(Gen. 38:) means "word "or ''saying." Abram seems to 
have had a shrine at or under the Ael-Ona-i (trans, 
"oaks") of Mame-Re, which latter name might indicate 
the " Dom-palm " (^gyp. Mama). In these and other in- 
stances, however, it seems probable that Aal or Eel has the 
sense of the " divine " (trans. " El ") ; and Aon is used for 
" strong," though as the most popular title of Osir-is, Ouon- 
Nepher (the "manifest-" or "incarnate-Goodness"), Aon 
or On became a word in Hebrew for "iniquity," "guilt," 
&c. ; Eel Aale-On, however, when applied to Melechi- 
Zedek, being rendered " God most-high," while one may 
see that the word Aale-On is entirely consonant with the 
" oak " or " tree " of Deborah the " nurse " and of Ab- 
raham. In Egyptian Aale-On or -Ouon would mean 
"heavenly-revelations" or "divine-manifestations," and 
this may have been under a tree, or by the sound of 
its leaves, or by the "leaf" (Aal-ek) itself, in the man- 
ner of the Sibyls ; and hence the sound of the going in 
the tops of the Becha-im, made a favorable omen for 
David, was perhaps a flight of the "hawk" (Egyp. Bak) 
or "vulture" (Egyp. Urau). These statements tend to place 
the religion of the Hebrews, before Ezra's time, and the es- 
tablishment of Jehovism, on a parity with that of the 
mountain shrine of Dod-Ona in northern Greece, regarded 
as primitive, as also that of the Druids or Dryads ; but it is 
noteworthy that Zeus's temple on the hill T-Mar-us was 
near Dod-Ona, and that Dod may be the Canaanite word 
which gives us the Hebrew David and the Phoenician 
Did-o, widow of Sich-Arbas (Hob. Ared, "willow"); the 
Egyptian word Tert meaning both " willow " and 
" mourner." 

Words applied also to the cults of the Sun and Moon, or 
the deities of which these were symbols, as also "Light " 
and "Darkness," are doubtless rendered more perplexing 
because often borrowed from neighboring languages, where 



HIDDEN MEANINGS OF HEBREW STORIES. 47 

these luminaries were adored. That these celestial objects 
were at one time equally venerated by the Hebrews may 
be argued from the first chapter of Genesis (i : 14-18), 
where within five verses ten different reasons are assigned 
for their existence, and in which it is repeatedly explained 
that they are created things for specific purposes ; hence not 
deities; the tautology showing both zeal and design. The 
Jehovist, who only accounts for the origin of the animate 
or mundane (Gen. 2 : 4-25), in the text as we have it, seems 
to accept as sufficient the attack of the Elohist on astral 
worship, and limits his effort there (Gen. 3 : 1-24) to an 
allegory in which the origin of evil, perhaps the loss of 
Jerusalem, is serpent-charming, tree-divination, and strange- 
women. The Sun is usually in Hebrew called Shem-Esh, 
a name for it in the Assyrian and Chaldean ; but the Egyp- 
tian usual name, Ra or Re, appears in words of " seeing," 
and in "shepherd," in "companion"; but, above all, in 
"evil" {Ra-ah) and "famine" {Ra-Ab) and "earthquake" 
{Ra-Ash) ; tending to show that the Egyptian cult of the 
Sun was not favorably regarded. The " in Shechan of Ra" 
(trans, "with sore boils") of Job (2: 7) certainly seems 
" in the dwelling of the Sun," which was the worst of his 
troubles, for we take him to personify Egypt, or the land 
of Auz, the Thebaid, or the Nile which flows through Auz ; 
and it is curious that his name (Ai-Aob) means the " great- 
sacrifice" in Egyptian, as Charem-El (Carmel) means in 
Hebrew the " sacrifice-God " or " sacrificed," though also 
" vineyard " ; and when we connect the Carmel shrine with 
its fine view of the " hinder " or Acheron (Deut. 34 : 2) sea, 
and the lurid setting of the Sun in its depths, we are not 
only reminded of the funeral p3^re of Heracles, the Tyrian 
Melech-Arth, but of the carry-off of " Eli-Jah " (Eali-Jahu) 
by the Sear-ah in her chariots of fire with steeds of fire, 
and the lion-skin of the former suggests the "mantle" 
{Adder-eth) of the other, though the leopard-skin worn by 
the Egyptian high-priest or Sem must be considered, as 



48 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

well as Esav (Gen. 25 : 25) who came forth Adem-On-i 
(trans, ^'red"), perhaps as the demons, like an Adder-etk 
She-Aar (trans, "garment of hair"), which seems an allu- 
sion to the Shethian or Typhonian Sha, who may typify the 
"inundation" (Egyp. So). Elijah's Seor-ah or "whirl- 
wind," however, seems a feminine form of Sha-Aar, and 
Eli-Shea would seem the Sha, as Shet or Typhon is sup- 
posed to be ; Shith being Hebrew for " drink " ; and Eli- 
Shea's advent seems to have ended the " drouth" {cHoreb), 
which comports with Sha-Ul, for the Nile rises in July, the 
Arab month Shawwal. That the Tyrian Melach-Arth is 
the " hairy " Heracles or Elijah or Esav must appear when 
we understand that Arth is the word Aor-oth (Ex. 25 : 5) 
or "skins," and as cHuram of Tyre he was the demi-urgos 
(Greek "house-builder") or "carpenter," who built 
Shelomeh's temple, if his fairies* did not (i K. 6 : 7), and 
who was cunning to work all Malach-ah in brass; and 
his name implies that he was the " sacrificed " icHarem) or 
"utterly -destroyed" (Josh. 11: 20), as perhaps representing 
by the frequent use of this word in the loth and nth of 
the Joshua the identity of Jeho-Shua himself with this 
ferocious demi-urge of many names, who was no doubt the 
Bes or Beza of the Egyptian inscriptions, a form of Pa-Tach 
("Ptah"), and who seems to have gotten name from or 
given name to Je-Bus. One classic legend of Heracles was 
that his father Zeus said one would be on a day soon who 
should have great dominion, and Hera, hating his liason 
with Alcmena, brought about the birth of Euri-Sith-Ain 
("Eurysthenes") before that of Heracles, which made the 
latter subservient, as Egypt had been, till Asar or Osir-is 
reigned, to the Nile-flood, and hence the labors of Heracles 
or Asar were the canals of Egypt, and its other develop- 

*The passage reads "And the house in the Benoth of its Eben 
Shelemeh Ma-Shaa Ni-Binah. " Our English may give us the sense, 
but not the play on the Benoth (daughters) of its stone or building ; 
on the name Shelemeh, which is that of " Solomon " ; on Ma-Shaa 
or"fromShaa.'* 



HIDDEN MEANINGS OF HEBREW STORIES. 49 

ments, but Aur-i-Sith-Ain might be possiblj^ the " Nile's- 
drink-fountain " if Phoenician or Hebrew were looked to, 
though Satan is "adversary," while in Egypt Suten was 
" King," and a word in each country which became as ob- 
noxious as Tyrannos in Greece and Rex at Rome ; but in 
any case the Heracles and Eurysthen legend parallels that 
of Prome-Theos and Zeus, and Pa-Rom means " the man " 
(Egyp. Rom, " man") ; both representing, not the struggles 
between Summer and Winter, Light and Night, but intel- 
lectual and physical improvement at war with intolerance 
and chaotic conditions ; and so we may perhaps understand 
at least one phase of the myth of Osiris and Seth ; but from 
the meaning of his name (Chal. A-Din, "j^ear," "time ") it 
seems probable that the myth of Adonis in western Syria, 
killed as he was by a boar, was that of the old year slain 
by cold or winter ; and the Hebrew word Adon-ai (trans. 
"Lord") is thus a mere equivalent, in its original sense, 
with the original sense of the Phcenician Ullam or Elohim 
(" eternal " or " time"), unless the latter word connects with 
the Aal-u ("blessed" or " heaven ") of the Egyptians; the 
classic Olym-Pus or -Api seeming to be the former, but 
describing the Hapi or " Nile." And it is this Syrian con- 
cept of Adon-is or Adon-ai that was close to Tyre and her 
cHiram, for Adon was killed while hunting in Lebanon ; 
perhaps at the shrine Dan, at the source of the Jeor-Dan ; 
and it seems from this, and the fact that his name as 
called there was probably Jero- or Jeor-Aboam (i K. 12: 
28-30), that his was there a phase or branch of the Apis 
or Nile cult, and not the Sun ; and he has been identified 
with "the Tam-Uz" (Ezek. 8: 14), or the Chaldean Dom- 
Uzi, third person of the triad of Sip-para, and the beloved 
of Ishtar, whom she raised from death after her descent 
into and escape from Hades, by sprinkling him with the 
water of immortality ; and the name Dom or E-Dom as 
well as Uz or Az (Heb, "goat," "tree," "strong"), con- 
nects him with Edom or Esav, who came forth A-Dem-On-i 



50 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

or as the "demons," as also with Adam and his Az or 
" tree," as also Esther and her rescue of the Jews ; and th-e 
Jewish and Assyrian month June-July was Tam-Uz (the 
Shawwal of the Arabs), but the Chaldeans called it Duz, 
suggestive of the Greek Ha-Des, and the Gallic Dis, and the 
Sun could only be meant as identified with Hades if that 
place had been considered one of fire or heat. But the 
word " crim-son " is said to be from an Arab word admitted 
to be the same as that from which Mount Carm-El is 
derived, and this would serve to connect Edom or Esav 
with cHuram of Tyre, with Jeho-Shua who was buried at 
Ti-Men-ath Ser-ah, and with the Carmel god Eli-Jah. 

It has been argued that Noach is a story of the Sun going 
into the clouds of the rainy season or descending below the 
horizon into Hades. The Hebrew writer of one incident told 
of him tries to prove him the same as Bacchus or Osar (Gen. 
9 : 10-27). He is made to plant a Charem, and to become 
Shechar, and the latter is a name of Osar. He then becomes 
'' naked " {Aer-aveth). His son cHam saw this, " and made 
known to his brothers Bach-Uz " ; a word perverted to "with- 
out." Down to the Macedonian times Bacchus was repre- 
sented always as an elderly and bearded figure. The knowl- 
edge that Egypt or cHam first worshipped or discovered this 
deity is thus conveyed, and yet Canaan comes in for a curse 
since the Egyptians called the wine of Palestine Baka. The 
other sons drew over their father, as they walked Acheron- 
eth (trans. ** backwards "),a Sim-El-ah,as Bacchus was son 
of Sem-Ele, but perhaps here the panther-skin of the 
Egyptian Sem or pontiff. This may imply a Sun-set, as 
Nach (trans, "rest ") and the Greek Nochs and Latin Nox 
are consonant, to say nought of Acheron, or Charon and 
his boat ; and the spotted skin may have meant the stars of 
night for Bacchos wore it into " India," or perhaps Hades ; 
the Hebrew Hodu (Esth. 1:1) being " India," to which Osar- 
is also went ; and perhaps the "hold" (i Sam. 22 : 4, 5) or 
Ma-Zub-ah into which David went with the sword of 



HIDDEN MEANINGS OF HEBREW STORIES. 51 

Goliath, taken out of the Sim-El-ah in which it was hid 
(21: 9), has a like reference; and so the Sim-ich-ah or 
"rug" of the doomed Sisera; for Sam-ach-eth (trans, "re- 
joice") before Jehoah (Lev. 23 : 40) was the order at the 
feast of Succ-oth or wine-harvest ; while the Sem-ach Sem- 
ach-ah (i K. i : 40) at the crowning of Shelomeh, whose 
name was probably Shem-01-eh, seems to identify him with 
the later form of Bacchus, especially as he rode his father's 
Pered {\X2iX\s. "mule"), which is perhaps the"pard" or 
"leo-pard" (Latin Pardus ; Gr. PardoSy "spotted"), and 
Bered (Gen. 16 : 14) seems a suggestion of this as the in- 
signia of the other I-Shama-El, the " wild-ass " {Pere) or 
" ear "-god, or the Sethic cult, for the distinction between 
it and that of Osar was perhaps in most of these narratives, 
and even in Egypt, one of dates. In Egypt the name of 
deity as SethRa would indicate that the Typhonian cult 
connected with that of Ra the Sun, but the Sun of " Sum- 
mer" (Egyp. Sein) in Egypt was accompanied in July- 
August by the heliacal rising of the dog-star Sat, punctual 
with the annual Sa or "inundation," and As-Sat (Isis-Sothis) 
was the soul of the great mother which was supposed to 
dwell in this star as author of the beneficent flow. The 
wife of Noach does not appear by name or mission, but that 
of Bacchus was the Cretan " Ariadne," who is easily He- 
braic for "Nile-goddess" or Aur-Adon-ah, though " Light- 
goddess " is equally proper ; and so J-Eor-Dan the father of 
the Om-Phale who captivated Heracles, and she was the 
" love-mother" Egypt who makes the Nile "weave" (Heb. 
Arag). 

The Egyptians, indeed, conceived the Sun and other 
astral bodies as passing over the skies in boats or ships. 
That people are said to have detested the sea, but certain 
birds as well as beasts gave warning or satisfaction as they 
appeared or disappeared, migrated or returned ; and so the 
Romans and Greeks. These last called the migratory birds 
of the Mediteranean (Heb. Acheron) Aer-Dios or "air-gods," 



52 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

and the Italians at this day call the *' heron " Agheron and 
Airone; the Hebrew " ark " being Aar-on ; which seems the 
Egyptian Sa-t. The " crane," the Greek Geran-os, sug- 
gests the Hebrew '' threshold " or Garon ; perhaps of the 
year. The "Ibis" (Egyp. //ad), so sacred to the wise 
Thoth or Ta-Hut, because it came and went with the in- 
undation, as the Sa or goose, sacred to Seb, did, were per- 
haps unknown as such in Hebrew story, though it is prob- 
able the Greek Phoebus or Apollo had a name from Pa- 
Hab or " the lb-is," and the unfortunate son of Adam was 
Hab-El, not " Abel." The Bak or " hawk," however, was 
the particular emblem of Ra or '' the Sun " in Egypt, and is 
often depicted as the head of Horus, Osar-is, and others ; 
and also with a human head the " hawk " (Heb. JVez) was 
the type of the human soul, though the Greeks seemed to 
have changed this conceit into the odious one of " harpy," 
while it seems that as the " dove" (/onak) it was the em- 
blem of the goddess Ishtar or Semiramis, and of Aphrodite 
or Venus, in the role of Hades-queen which some of the 
classics assign them. 

The Hebrew name of *' the Sun " (Skem-esk) seems to 
have given scarcely a name to a town in Canaan, though it 
was also a name of the Sun in Euphratic languages, but the 
names of towns in which the word Ra appears are frequent. 
The Egyptian Amen-Ra was probably the Syrian Ri-Mon 
or Tob-Rimmon; of whom perhaps the "pomegranate " or 
Rimmon was an emblem ; and this plant can scarcely be 
destroyed at its roots, while its twin leaves, and crown- 
shaped flower and fruit, as well as the color of these latter, 
must have made it very suitable for such purpose ; but it 
was perhaps as an emblem of Ra-Amen that it was so freely 
depicted on Shelomeh's temple. Rom-ulus and Rem-us of 
Rome, however, perhaps get their names from the Egyptian 
word Rom ("man"), as Rom-Aal would in the Egyptian 
mean " man-god," as Ab-Ram would be "sacrificed-man," 
while Rah-Man or " merciful " is still the favorite praise or 



HIDDEN MEANINGS OF HEBREW STORIES. 53 

title of God among the Arabs. " The Ra-Math-ah," in 
plural form (i Sam. i : i) or singular (7 : 17; 8: 4), else- 
where Ra-Mah or Ra-Amah, contains the word " dead " 
or "death" {Math or MutK), and seems the shrine of a 
goddess, as it is in feminine form ; and it was the home or 
shrine of El-iMelech and cHannah, perhaps the same as 
Shemu-El and Ra-cHel, if we can take these Har Ephraim 
stories as meant for other than illustrative lessons ; and Ra- 
cHel (Ra-"sick" or-shut-up) from her story (Gen. 30: 
1-24; 31 : 35; 35: 16-20; Jere. 31 : 15; i Sam. 10: 2) of 
sterility and sorrow one may see she is A-Kar-ah (Gen. 29 : 
31) or " barren," the classic Kore or Proserpine, the Sicilian 
Cer-Es, the "weeping" {Bech-ah; as feminine of the 
Egyptian Bak or " hawk ") for her Bene-ah or '* daughter," 
perhaps on a " stone " {E-Bin),a.s De- or Ge-Meter (Gr. 
"Earth-Mother") was found sitting on a stone at Eleu- 
Isis; and so Ma-Gadol ("great-mother") or Magdel-ene 
whenthestone was rolled away (John 20: 11 -18) was typified 
when Jakob Galal the stone for Ra-Chel, then Issea his 
voice and wept (Gen. 29 : 11- 18), for she was then Roah or 
" kept " the flocks ; and so Rhea surely wept as she gave 
her children to be eaten by their father Saturn till she gave 
a stone instead of the infant Zeus ; and it was coincidence 
that from this same Ha-Ramath-ah came that Joseph who 
supplied the stone sepulchre for the dead Gal-il-ean ; nor 
can one well separate this ha-Ra-Math-ah from that 
Epherath-ah or Beth-Lech-em, which latter means perhaps 
"house of the Wandering-Mother" (Gen. 35: 19) where Ra- 
cHel was buried. Re-Bekah is the same, and her name 
may be rendered from what has been said, though Bek-ah 
could be " heifer," as lo ; but she seems more distinctly 
Sheth-ah (Gen. 24: 14) or "drink," or the inundation- 
goddess, wife of Sheth. Ra-cHab the traitor-harlot may be 
of this group, while the Re-Chabites were sons of Rimmon 
(2 Sam. 4: 5-12); and the name Rimmon or Ra-Amen 
seems somehow typified in the story of a certain pious 



54 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

Josiah (lo-Shi-Jahu), who seems to have had a shrine at a 
place called Me-Giddo or Ar-Mageddon, wherefore the 
" mourning for ha-Dad- or the David-Rimmon in the val- 
ley of Me-Giddo" (Zech. 12 : 11), who as son of le-Did-ah 
(2 K. 22 : i) or of David (2 Chr. 34: 2, 3) may have been 
the same as the famous Shelomeh, whose name was also 
Je-Did-Jah. But the word Ra is also " evil," and perhaps 
these names are affected by that sense of the fierce Sun. 

Ba-Aal (trans. " Baal ") is also said to be a title of the 
Sun, and the meaning we have explained. After the name 
Jehoah began to be applied to Deity by the Jews or Ezra's 
sect, that of Ba-Aal, originally perhaps Ba-Eal or " in- 
heaven" or "in-God" (Egyp. "Heaven-Soul "), and a title 
which seems more sublime than the obscure Jehoah, was 
perhaps written with the letter " Ain " and not with the 
letter " Aleph," which makes a slight difference of articula- 
tion, but the great difference is the *' in-the-ram " form of the 
Egyptian god Chem or Amen, for the Egyptian titles of 
Deity must have lost ground after the conquest by Cambyses 
and his sacrilegious treatment of their symbols. The evi- 
dence of the most reliable of their documents, the Jeremiah 
(11 : 13), which shows that Ba-Aal was the name of Deity 
at Jerusalem in co-exile times, coupled with the statements 
in its 44th chapter, seems to us to subvert the whole cour 
ceit that Jehoah was an early name of the Deity in Canaan 
or at Jerusalem ; though, certainly, it is the high or low 
ideal one has of God, not his local name, that makes a dif- 
ference, while the meaning of the name given him denotes 
only the original concept, and not the later. In the cited 
passage of the Jeremiah (11 : 13) the name Bosh-eth or Bo- 
Sheth (trans, "shameful-thing") is used; a part of the name 
of Mephi-Bosheth and Aish-Bosheth, and as the former was 
Pa-Sach or " lame," and Moph was Memphis, we suspect 
Ba-Aal to be a phase of Pa-Tach or " Ptah," whom we may 
identify with Bes, since the word probably means the 
" angry" or "ugly " (trans, "ashamed") aspect of Eli-Shea 



HIDDEN MEAlJiNGS OF HEBREW STORIES. 55 

when taxed as to the disappearance of Eli-Jahu (2 K. 2 : 17). 
In the murderous struggle of Eli-Jahu and Ba-Aal (i K. 
18: 19-40) the latter is mocked as a dead or dumb god, or 
god of the dead ; which story is omitted in the later Chron- 
icles perhaps because Elijah's shrine at Carmel was a dan- 
gerous rival, and remained so at least till the time Vespasian 
consulted it ; but all new or sectarian or reform movements 
insist that the established religion is cold and perfunctory ; 
though the account there reminds one of the story of 
Heracles and Bus-Iris ; and it is curious that Eli-Jahu him- 
self is called by the writer of 2 Kings (1:8) Aish Ba-Aal 
Sa-Aar (trans. ** hairy-man"), thus identifying him with 
Ba-Aal, or certainly with that cult, which we take to be that 
of Sheth or Sha ; while his name Ti-Shib-i connects him 
■with the U-Shub-tiu or image-duplicates the Egj^ptians en- 
tombed with their dead ; from which words perhaps came 
the name Ti-Siphone, one of the furies, daughter of Nox 
and Acheron. That Eli-Jahu has been deemed a solar myth 
is not surprising, and the Greek form of his name, Helias, 
may have supported the conjecture. Ba-Aal cHelom-oth 
the Laz-ah, the name given Joseph by his brothers, is ren- 
dered " dreamer," yet the force of the word Ba-Aal, what- 
ever it may be, is omitted, but perhaps ** Lord of Dreams 
and the Tongue," and this with the signijficance that in 
Egypt or Tyre or Greece was attached to Thoth or ^scu- 
lapius, is the least of the divine that could be said of the 
phrase, since we are here reading, not a history, but a 
theogony; and it is noteworthy that "men" of Shechem, 
where Joseph was buried, are Ba-Aal-i (Judges 9 : 2, 3, 6, 
&c. ) in the story of Ab-iMelech, but that this is not correct 
appears (9: 51) when Aenosh-im is rendered "men" in the 
same verse with Ba-Aal-i ; but the Ba-Aal Berith worshipped 
there was probably this Joseph, since he had been la-cHan- 
et (trans, "embalmed") and put in an Aar-on, and hence 
was really represented b}'^ the Aar-on-Beri-ith (trans, "ark 
of the covenant"), for it seems that this sepulchral symbol of 



56 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

a sleeping or dead deity was an Egyptian conceit, as we 
read that the ark of the god Chen-su or Khous was sent to 
cure a queen; and Jeru- or Jeoru (the Jeor or " Nile")-Ba- 
Aal, or Gide-Aon, perhaps Jaar- or '* forest "-Ba-Aal, was 
doubtless the same as Joseph ; but the name Shechem seems 
to come from the *' sycamore-fig " goddess of Egypt, Hathor 
or Nu-t, with whom one may connect Gid-Aon's harlot, and 
Jakob's Dinah or Adon-ah, whom Shechem " humbled " 
(^Jann-aK)^ for Juno, Diana, and Nu-t or Shech-Em are thus 
attacked ; but these classic goddesses were both deemed 
lunar, as both Zeus or Jove and Apollo were considered solar 
types. Jakob (Gen. 37 : 9-10) readily accepts himself and 
wife as the Sun and Moon. The "witch" of Ain-Dor is 
called Ba-Aal-eth Aob (trans, "familiar-spirit"), but Aob 
alone is there also thus rendered, and we may say this divine 
title was due her if she could resurrect the awful Shemu-El, 
yet the word "inquire" {Ador-Esha) is so framed from 
Doresh as perhaps to indicate the local name of this sibyl. 
The widow of Zar-Eph-ath-ah is also called Ba-Aal-ath 
(trans, "mistress"). 

The translators usually render Jehoah "Lord," but in- 
variably so render Adon-ai ; thus confusing the two. The 
classic Adon-is, a Syrian myth, is usually considered solar 
as he was allowed after death to spend half his time on 
earth, but it perhaps means the death of vegetation and its 
re-birth, which accords with the myth of Atys (Gr. Atos^ 
"year"). And the root seems to be Aad, a word often ren- 
dered " then," " Until." In the famous oracular phrases of 
the Daniel (7: 25; 12: 7) the word "time" is Aidan and 
Mo- Aad; the two passages perhaps having different au- 
thors ; but the sense is said to be " year." This sense would 
make x\don-ai or "Lord" annual and perennial, or a deity 
who came and went, but perhaps more abruptly than the 
Sun or the Nile ; and so frost may have been the boar that 
killed Adonis ; and this might suit the month Ad-ar (Febru- 
ary-March). Probably, however, the word Dan or Dayan, 



HIDDEN MEANINGS OF HEBREW STORIES. 57 

which seems a Chaldean title or term for ''judge," the usual 
Hebrew being Shephat, was the same as Adon-ai, but we 
do not well see how that could apply to the Sun. The 
name was common enough, whatever its origin. Adonai- 
Bez-ek (Josh. lo: 1-27), king of Je-Bus, ''hanged on a 
tree," probably refers to the god Bes, the Canaanite giant- 
god. In the Revelations (9: 11) Abad-Don or "servant- 
Adon" is explained as the Greek Apollo-Eon and " angel-of- 
the- Abyss," and in the Esther (9:5) Aab-Edon is rendered 
" destruction," but these may not refer to Adon-ai as a word. 
No star or constellation is known to have figured in the 
Israelite cults. We seem to get the star of Beth-Lech-Em 
from the Egyptian veneration of the dog-star, Sa-t (Gr. 
Sothis), w^hose heliacal rising announced that their saviour 
river was read}'- to inundate. There was a yearly festival 
to this star, and the soul of As or Hez was said to dwell 
in it, hence she was Isis-Sothis. The difficult passage of the 
Amos (5: 26) seems this year-star, as Renpa was Egyptian 
for "year," or at least Stephen (The Acts 7 : 43) probably 
so understood it, but there is no evidence in the passage 
that the Israelites worshipped or held sacred a star. It 
might be suggested that the Egyptian act of worship was 
expressed hieroglyphically by a star over the head of a 
figure, and that a star also represents the soul. It is possi- 
ble that originall}^ the dog-star as the opener of the year, 
which in Egypt began July 20, or first day of the month 
Thoth, was more nearly connected with the Egyptian Pa- 
Tach or "Ptah" than the star we call Venus, though the 
Greeks identified Heph-Aistos or Vulcan with the latter, 
and yet Hepha-Satos carries us toward the Sothis star, for 
it seems admitted that the name Hephaistos is not Greek, 
while in Hebrew both cHeph and Setar mean "hid" or 
"hidden " ; which word would apply well to the smith-god 
or either star. The day-star is the only star that casts a 
shadow, and it plays at " hide-and seek " about the Sun ; 
keeping vigil over it at evening as if over his sleep, and 



58 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

at dawn as if over his cradle ; cherub-im as it were over the 
slumberer ; and again, as a youth, it goes forth as Icarus, or 
as Je-Pa-Thach's daughter, and perishes in the skies of 
Sun-rise, or as Sem-Ele in the glory of Zeus ; and hence 
never passes over either the face of the day or of the night. 
Its attendance on the Sun might seem to have given it any 
subordinate function ; while as to the Moon, as a jealous 
wife, it might seem the strange woman. The Greeks cer- 
tainly indulged some such fancies as to this star. It may be 
the Hebrew Riz-Epah (2 Sam. 3: 7-8; 21 : 8-1 1), daughter 
of Aia-Jah, who watched over the dead of Shaul from bar- 
ley-harvest till rain fell, and whose shrine must have been 
at or near Nob, as she seems a phase of Niobe ; though the 
seven dead sons are more probably the seven branches of 
the Nile, and Riz-Ap-ah suggests the feminine Hapi. The 
story may, however, be an attack on Mizepah, a great shrine 
(i Macca 3: 46); devoted doubtless to the same cult as 
that at Mizepah in Gile-Ad, where perhaps the practice was 
to sacrifice a girl or to sequestrate her to the shrine ; but, as 
the morning-star, which has watched over the Sun-rise, she 
first goes upward with her companions for two months, 
which is roundly its period ; and so the Lech-in-ah daughters 
of Israel went yearly, &c., and I-Lech seems the "goers" 
or "pilgrims," and yet (Dan. 5: 23) is rendered "concu- 
bines;" but her father "Jepthah" or le-Pe-Thach has the 
name of the Egyptian form of Deity called Pa-Thach or 
" Ptah " (Pa-Thach-Sekar-Osir), whom the Greeks identified 
with Hephaestus or Vulcan. Miriam, sister of Mosheh, 
buried at Kad-Esh, which means " east-light," and a vir- 
gin, but made Zara-oth or "leprous" for seven days at 
Hazar-oth or ha-Zar-oth (Num. 12 : 10), may also have this 
star as a type, but more probably the cresent-Moon of 
morning. The Beri-ith Aolam (trans. " covenant-everlast- 
ing"), which Jehoah cuts with Abraham, "the Sun going 
down" (Gen. 15: 17), when as a sign he is taken out and 
shown the stars, might seem the evening-star or dog-star. 



HIDDEN MEANINGS OF HEBREW STORIES. 59 

but when cut with Noach it is called Kash-eth, and we sus- 
pect the new or crescent "Moon" (Egyp. Aoh) was this 
"sign" {Aoth) since it is to be put in the Anan-i, which 
means both "clouds" and " ships " ; and so the Bari (Heb. 
A-Berah) of the Egyptians were crescent-shaped, and it 
was in them that the pious dead were made to " pass-over " 
(Heb. Aber or Pa-Sach) the lake of the dead into Aal-u 
Shechan or the " blessed abode," piloted by the cHaron 
(wherefore Cherith, "cuts") or "boatman"; whence the 
Aaron Beri-ith or " ark-covenant " as well as the Beri-ith 
Aolam of the Jews, which was a promise of salvation or 
immortality, of which the waning and waxing Moon might 
well be the sign to the Abera-im or " Hebrews " ; but this 
Beri-ith or passage was shrewdly turned into more substan- 
tial hopes than those of the metaphysicians of Egypt ; while 
in Phoenician myth the god Berathy had a shrine on Mount 
Ta-Bor or Tab-or, which connects with the Tebah or 
Tebeth (trans, "ark") of Noach and Mosheh, and the god- 
dess Ber-uth was wife of Eli-Ion, as Ano-Bret (or -Ber-at) 
was wife of Eli-Melech, and they were parents of Je-Hud or 
"only-child" or "darling" (Gen. 22: 2, 12; Zech. 12: 10; 
Judges 11: 34; Ps. 22: 10) whom El-Melech sacrifices to 
avert the perils of war ; and this Phoenician Berith connects 
with Abi-Melech who (Judges 9 : 4) took the treasure of 
Ba-Aal Berith and was slain at Theb-Ez, and with the slay- 
ing of Gid-Aon's brothers at Tabor, for he seems Ba-Aal 
Berith, and is turned back at the ascent of cHer-Es (Judges 
8 : 13), for the star cannot pass over the sky, and Jonathan 
out of hiscHuror " hole" cannot continue the pursuit. The 
Isaiah (14: 12) calls the city of Babylon Hailal (trans, "day- 
star "), son of Sachar, but we suspect the latter half of the 
name Bab-Ili ("gate of god") with the Hebrew definite 
article (Jia-Ili) is meant, and the place is now called Hilah, 
while from its name Su-Anna ("valley of An-u " or the god 
An) the Jews seem to have derived their ho-Sannah ; but 
the Babylonian Hi and the Egyptian Aal-u (Heb. Aal, 



6o SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

"above," "upon," "up," "over") were in all the Eastern 
languages, giving us Ili-um, " Eloh-im " (Aeloh-im), Olym- 
pus, the Arab Allah, &c., as also our "hail," the Ethiopian 
and Greek and Hebrew Allal-u or Halal-u, &c. ; at the same 
time it seems a word of divine import, though we object to 
its rendition as "God-forbid" when Jonathan is called 
cHelil-ah (i Sam. 14: 45), and also (i K. i : 40) we object 
to " piped with pipes " {^Me-cHallili-im be-cHalili-im), liter- 
ally "from cHallili-im in cHalili-im," which seems the 
" Allelua-Iou-Iou " at the Greek Oscho (Sachar)-phoria or 
Succ-oth festival to the vine god, for young Shelomeh is 
on a Pered or leo-" pard " (the panther of Bacchus), and 
being brought down Aal-Gichon, which Gichon in its pre- 
cise form there is only used of the "belly " (Lev. 11 : 42) 
of reptiles, or the Gechon (Gen. 3 : 14) on which the ser- 
pent was to go after being "cursed" {Aar-ur), for Aar-aa 
(Egyp. "asp") was the symbol of "goddess" and of the 
god Neph or Num, and as a symbol of " dominion" could 
only be worn by the Egj^ptian kings ; but it may be that 
it is meant that the Pered-ah or panther was crawling on 
her belly, for the later Chronicler (2 Chr. 32 : 30; 33: 14) 
makes it a locality, with a slightly variant spelling, though 
that may have been a shrine. The main story of Jonathan 
(i Sam. 14: 1-45) contains his attack on the Pele-Sheth, and 
is in touch with that of Je-Pethach's daughter, both being 
the victims of avow: his Halak Deb-ask (trans, "honey 
dropped ") in the forest perhaps typefying his fading light, 
though taken as "wild-honey" (Mat. 3: 4) when the later 
John came from the wilderness; and, leaving his father 
Shaul, Jonathan, with his Ne-Shoa Chel-ai or "armour- 
bearer," passes a Shen (usually "sleep") on either side, 
and climbs into the Ma-Zab, which also means a memorial 
pillar of the dead; and thereupon an Elohim cHarad-ah 
(trans, "mighty trembling"), for it seems to be a theo- 
phany of the god "child" (Egyp. Cher-at ; Chald. Qurad, 
" warrior "), the Un cHar Heb (" show face festival ") of the 



HIDDEN MEANINGS OF HEBREW STORIES. 6 1 

Egyptians, and the names might suggest the rise of the 
Nile at the first cataract, where it roars over the red rocks 
between Syene (Shen ?) and Phil-ae; where stands the 
sacred and rocky islet Sahayl or Set-e, a burial-place of 
Osir-is ; though Shen is the Eg5''ptian Pa-Sheen or " lotus," 
emblem of Aahi or Har the " child " {Cher-at) ; the Ahieh 
or "I am" of cHor-eb, who as Hor or cHor ("Horus") 
punished Shet or Pele-Sheth (trans. "Philistines"); and 
this account of the resurrection is attended by A-Chel al 
Dam (trans. " eat-with-the-blood") or Acel-Dama, for here 
is the Homeric conceit that one in Sheol must drink blood 
in order to speak (Odys. ii : 95,151), hence I-Sachar-iot or 
"Iscariot " is the ruddy " flood-face " (Egyp. Sa-Char) of 
the inundation, or Osir-Sekari, or merely cHor-us as the 
Greeks called the avenging son ; and he comes out of his 
cHur-im (trans, "holes") or "white," astonishes the 
watchmen of Sheol in Gibe-ath or the " den," then after- 
wards eats a " honeycomb " (Luke 24: 42, 45) which opens 
"understanding" or eyes (i Sam. 14: 27), perhaps foun- 
tains, or ships or clouds, since they are all Ain-i or Anan-i ; 
and this cHarad-ah is the "care" (2 K. 4: 13) or son Eli- 
Shea gives Shun-Em or the " lotus"- or " sleep-mother," on 
whom he la-Ge-Har (Jeor or "Nile ") or " stretched," and 
the "trembling" (cHarad) when the defrauded Esav ap- 
pears (Gen. 27: 33), as Herod also was "troubled" (Mat. 
2 : 3) when told of the star by the Mag-i, who as the 
"multitude" or the Amon (i Sam. 14; 16) "melted-away " 
(Na-i^(?^) / but the honey Jonathan ate stopped the pur- 
suit, and Shaul is required to stop at Ai-Ail-On till the 
morning light, as in the Gid-Aon version the stop is at the 
ascent of cHer-Es, while in the Joshua version the Sun and 
Moon stand still on Gib-Aon and Ai-Ail-On ; and the stone 
Shaul has Gallel (trans, "rolled") to him is also rolled 
(Josh. 10: 18 ; comp. v. 11) in the Joshua version, as the 
stone was rolled away by the angel in "white" {cHur) amid 
the trembling or earthquake when Jesus arose to go into 



62 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

Gallil-ee, Jonathan's Gal-ah or *' discover " from his cHur- 
im or "holes;" all these seeming to describe such a theo- 
phany or "face-show" (Egyp. cHar-Un ; whence Beth- 
cHoron) as the Egyptians celebrated when the star Sat or 
Seth arose at the time the Nile was about to leave its bed 
or tomb; though it seems curious that in Egypt cHaron 
also was the boatman who ushered the justified into the 
new life, and that the youth-god cHorus should appear in 
the inscriptions as this boatman of the cHer-u or "justi- 
fied ; " but if these names relate to the day-star, called cHar- 
em-Akhu, which opens the dawn and pilots the Sun to his 
death, evidencing a remote Sabaean worship in Egypt, we 
may see why Herm-es performed this office of conducting 
the dead, and why cHuram of Tyre was a cHar-Esh or 
"worker" in brass, perhaps "cave-light," and whj^ the 
promontorj'- Carm-El on the Acher-on sea was that of the 
Ti-Shib or "returner," for the star cHar-em-Akhu at 
evening goes with the Sun, and after a "sojourn" (^Shib) 
in Hades he comes as the forerunner; and so Elijah is 
called the A-cHor or "troubler " (i K. i8 : 17) by Achab, 
so that we have Elijah as Aa-Chan the son of Carem-i, 
stoned in Aa-Chor (Josh. 7 : 16-26) for hiding the Adder-eth 
Shin-Aar or " mantle of Shin-Aar," and he was of the house 
of Jeho-Shu-Aa, who brought it forth to Ge-Bari-im (trans, 
"man-by-man") or the " boats " where souls of the dead 
were tried, and perhaps Jeho-Shu-Aa got the Adder-eth as 
Eli-She- Aa got it after Eli-Jahu also disappeared in fire ; 
but the Achar Achad (trans, "behind one") in their Tav 
or "mark" (Isaiah 66: 17) will be destroyed (v. 15) when 
Jehoah comes again in a whirlwind and chariots of fire to 
"the Shib" (trans, "render"), &c. ; and hence this contest 
is kept up when Jesus tells the " troubler" (Heb. A-cHor), 
perhaps the troubled Herod, perhaps the fore-runner John, 
to get "behind" (Heb. A-cHar), for John was at once 
"delivered up" (Mat. 4: 10-12) to Herod, though the 
story may only be the old one of the Seorah carry-off of 



HIDDEN MEANINGS OF HEBREW STORIES. 63 

Elijah (comp. 2 K. 2 : 16) as the Ruach figures in each 
case. This " white" or "cave " {cHur) god must be kept 
in view in all these theophanies, since the Egyptian cHar- 
Un means that, as does Oun- or Un-Nepher, the favorite 
title of the white Osir-is when his **face" (Egyp. cHer; 
Heb. PJian) is " shown " or " manifest " (Egj^p. Ouon or 
Un; also *'hour"); and so David is in cHor-Esh (trans, 
"wood"), Shaul's and '^o.^oh's cHer-Ash (trans, "held-his- 
peace"), Gid-Aon's cHer-Es, Barak's cHar-osh-eth (i Sam. 
23: 18; 10: 27: Gen. 34: 5; Judges 4: 2, 16), as also Je- 
Pethach's Abel cHer-am-im, as well as Joshua's Beth-cHoron 
(Judges 11: 33; Josh. 10: 11), and Shimshon's "Sun" 
{cHar-Esh-ah) and "ploughed" {cHar-Esh-etK), and the 
" plowing " or cHer-Esh Eli-Shea (Judges 14 : 18 ; i K. 19 : 
19), all advise us of this divine dramaturgy. That Herm- 
Es comes from this concept may further appear when we find 
David (2 Sam. 15 : 17) fleeing before Ab-Shalom to Beth the 
Mer-ach-ak or " house of the Mercury," which seems like 
his tarrjang "in Aa-Ber-oth of Ma-Debar" (v. 28) or "in 
boats of silence" (trans. " at the fords of the wilderness") ; 
for Mer-Cur-y may be Heb. Amer-cHeroz, "word-herald" : 
while Abshalom violated the Peleg-Esh, which means 
"divided-light." In the stories of Heracles we also have 
such lesser luminaries as Hyl-us and Hyll-us and lol-as 
and lole ; while the classic Helle and Hel-ice (Cal-Isto) 
also perhaps sustain the Halel or " day-star " of the Isaiah, 
which could not pass over, yet was a fore-runner or herald 
or watchman or first-born. Still, the effect of the Sun on 
streams, which flow freely at one season and little or none 
at another, is to be considered, since physical phenomena 
acting on our sensibilities give birth to all our higher 
ideals. 



CHAPTER V. 

MOSHEH AND HIS SIMILARS. 

IT seems to us that Mo-Sheh was the representative of 
a cult which Ezra found easier to assimilate than to 
eradicate. That this was the old Seth or Typhon cult of 
Egypt seems probable, and its priests had perhaps found 
asylum in Canaan. Mo-Sheh is said to get his name from 
Me-Shi-Ithi-Hu, or Me-Shi-Ithih if we take the "u" for 
" him," and this is rendered " I drew out." Of course there 
is here a play on the sound of words, so frequent every- 
where in these Hebrew books, for Mosheh is made the 
hierophant and oracle, which is personified by the " sphinx " 
(Egyp. Hu or cHu or Akar), so that one is not expected 
to get a definition of his name, whether Bath-Pha-Raoh 
spoke Egyptian or Hebrew (Ex. 2: 10), yet, if Me-Shech-u 
(Ex. 12: 21) is also rendered " draw out," it is not easy to 
believe that they mean the same ; but both words are played 
upon (Gen. 24: 14-22) in the famous watering and drinking 
scene, meant to give her several names to Rebekah, ad- 
dressed as Hat (trans, ''let-down"), for Hat-Hor or Athor 
(comp. Har-Hat, "trough," Ex. 2 : 16), where it is twice 
repeated that Sheth-ah (trans, "drink") and "I will give 
drink" (5/?^^-«^*), while " draw" is She-Aab or She-Aob, 
and "trough" is Shok-eth. But Shith is the usual word 
for drink, and Sa-t (fern, "the Sa") is Egyptian for the 

*This Shik-ah is "kissed" when Sha-Aul is made Ma-Shech 
(iSam. to: I ), after eating the "thigh " or Shuk, perhaps "phallus" 
(9 : 24) or Egyptian cHek, and so when Jakob meets Rachel he 
"watered" {la-Shek) the flock and "kissed" {li-Shak) her. We 
suspect the Shik-Uz or " abomination '^ to be the ' * phallus." (64) 



MOSHEH AND HIS SIMILARS. 65 

** inundation " (Heb. " Shet-Aph), and we think the dog- 
star Soth and this word inundation gave rise to the cult of 
Set or Seth, often destructive, but perhaps afterwards trans- 
ferred to the sea or to the heat of that period which ab- 
sorbed Osir-is or the Nile ; and hence Mo-Shi-ith-Ihu seems 
an allusion to Mosheh as opposed to Egypt and Osir-is ; the 
more, too, when we consider that " T " or " Th " represents 
the articulation " D " in the Egyptian, which would make 
Shadd-ai or " Almighty " the same as Sheth, and the like is 
true of Zad-ok or Sed-uc. But it must be noted that the 
"lamb" or Seh (Ex. 12 : 4, 5), the Egyptian Siu or " sheep," 
seems consonant with the second syllable of the name Mo- 
Sheh. The infancy of Mosheh in his Teb-ah on the water 
was a popular myth of the ancients, from Sargon in his ark 
of reeds and bitumen on the Euphrates to Romulus as an 
infant on the Tiber. The father of Mosheh was Aa-Meram, 
not "Amram," who married his Dod-eth or "'aunt," a 
daughter of that Levi ben-Jakob who went into Egypt, and, 
as the Hebrews are said to have remained in Egypt four 
hundred and thirty years, this woman must have been 
about two hundred and fifty years old at the birth of her 
son (Ex. 6 : 16-27). Her name was lo-Chebed, which is 
the Arab Kib-ti or " E-Gyp-t," and in places (Ex. 8 : 32 ; 9: 
7) we have la-Chabed as the "hardened" or "stubborn" 
heart of Pha-Raoh (also Chebad, 7: 14), and (4: 10) 
Mosheh is Chebad or " slow" of speech and of tongue ; and 
note (20: 12) " Chebad thy father and thy mother " ; but the 
Greek story of lo as Az or Isis (Egyp. Aha, " heifer " ; Aok, 
"Moon") perhaps has no connection with lo-Chebed, 
though in the 4th of i Samuel, where the birth of Ai Chabod 
is told, the Pele-Sheth only took the ark after (vv. 7, 8) 
calling Aoi (trans, "woe") to help them, and it seems it 
was this departure of the deity that is represented by the 
death of the wife of Phin-ech-As, called Lal-ath (trans, "near- 
to-be-delivered") ; and in classic legend lo was mother of 
Ep-Aph-us who is identified with Apis, but which name is 



66 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

quite nearly that of Aapap the serpent-foe whom Hor-us is 
depicted as vanquishing, and hence a phase of the Sethic 
worship in its later stages. 

The identification of Mosheh with the Nechush-Tan, kept 
in the temple at Jerusalem (2 K. 18 : 4 ; Ezek. 8 : 10), in 
which form Seth or Typhon was probably worshipped there, 
perhaps caused the later story of the Numbers (21 : 6-9), 
which tries to explain the origin of his emblem by detailing 
an exploit of his in relieving the people from Ser-Aphs, 
which he did by making them adore a figure of one which 
perhaps they had neglected to do for some time, and the tale 
of Nachash seducing cHava or " Eve " probably originated 
in hostility to this cult ; but it must have lasted at Jerusalem 
till after Ezra's time, as it did at Delphi among the more 
intelligent Greeks, and was sufficiently entrenched to require 
the Ezraites to adopt Mo-Sheh as the name of their leading 
Nebie or " prophet " (Egyp. Neb, " Lord"), or as the Egyp- 
tian Nub-ti, the name of the Sethic cult at Ombos on the 
Nile, or doubtless the better phase A-Nub-is of the jackal- 
head, who was a favorite deity at Rome in the first century, 
though these latter were not apparently connected with the 
serpent ideals. These, however, could not be lacking in a 
land where a town called Askelon was evidently from its 
name a seat of the worship of ^scul- or Shachul-Apis, and 
where the '' grape " (Heb. A-Neb) of E-Shechol was a boast. 
" Fiery-serpent " or Ser-Ap or Sar-Apis, however, opens up a 
connection between the two which, suggested by Tacitus, has 
never been made quite clear, but its importance is great, as 
is that of the Sar-ha-Ap or " chief-butler " of Joseph's time, 
in showing that either the cult of Sar-Apis was not intro- 
duced by Ptolemy-Soter or -Philadelphus, in the third cen- 
tury B. C, as Tacitus (Hist. 4 : 83, 84) and others agree, or 
that these Hebrew writings seem to be later than that time. 
Howbeit, we see the widow of Zar-Ep-ath-ah or Sar-Ep-ta 
(Luke 4:26), where Eli-Jah "stretched" (^Teme-Dad) upon 
her dead son, and healed him ; as also the Ser-Ep-ah (trans. 



MOSHEH AND HIS SIMILARS. 67 

"burning") for King-As-aa (2 Chr. 16: 14; comp. i K. 15: 
8, &c.), who probably would have lived long had he not 
sought " in Rophe-im'' (trans. " physicians") in his sickness, 
and this for two years ; but his son Jehoram was also sick 
two years, and died without Ser-Ep-ah. Perhaps the 
Egyptian word A-Reph or " wine " plays a part here, and in 
words of its spelling, as it is rendered "healer," "dead," 
"giant" ; and O-Reph-El is the "thick-darkness " in which 
Jehoah dwells, and we have " Jehoah thy Roph-ea " (Ex. 
15 : 26). Sar-Apis as the soul or spirit of Osar-Hapi or 
Osir-is was perhaps the finest concept of the ancients of 
the Levant, and the early Christians were supposed to have 
adopted his cult, and perhaps the connection of the name 
with " burning," if that be the proper rendering, could be 
placed to the sorrow at the supposed death of the Hapi or 
Nile from the Sun, just as Hya-Cinth or Ab-Shalom or 
Adonis dies ; and particularly Euri-Dike b}^ the bite of a 
serpent, and for love of whom 0-Rephe-us descended into 
Hades, as also Belle-Roph-on whose steed was stung; for 
A-Reph was not only Egyptian for wine, but Repha or 
Repa was wife of the Nile. The -^Esculapius of Berj^tus 
in Phoenicia was called Esmun, one of the Dio-Securi or 
Cabiri, sons of Sadyk or Zadok, and as E-Simun he recalls 
the " cruse " (^Shimon) of oil of the Zar-Ep-ath widow, and 
perhaps this was the "hearing" or "ear "-god. At Mem- 
phis Aiemho-Tep was recognized as ^sculapius, and he 
was son of Pa-Tach or " Ptah " ; but the last syllable of his 
name perhaps connects him with the Tob (trans. " beautiful- 
child") Mosheh and his Teb-eth or "ark"; the Egyptian 
word Teb meaning " box " or sealed vessel, while their 
word Ap (fem. T-Ap, "the Ap") means "manger" or 
"cradle" as well as "head" or "superiority"; and so the 
Teb-ah or " ark " of Noach connects him with that wine-god, 
the "tenth" (^Asir') patriarch and the tenth month Teb-eth: 
as with le-pa-Thach and his land of Tob (Judges 11 : 3), and 
with Tub-al-Kain the Lot-Esh (trans. " forger ") or "hidden- 



68 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

fire," whose sister was Na-Am-ah, feminine of No-Amon 
(Nahum 3 ; 8) or Theb-es, the Egyptian Ap or T-Ap, but 
which Na-Amen was " dipped " or Teb-ol in Jordan, then 
departed "a little way" (2 K. 5 : 19) or "a Ciber-ath of 
Earth" or Mul-Ciber. So these attributes or elements of fire 
and wine, or their effects, run into concepts of the demi-urge. 
When Mosheh fled to Mide-Ian he sat " above " {Aal) a 
well. The seven daughters who filled ''the troughs to 
water," (literally " Har-Hat-im to the Shek-oth "), seem 
the seven Hat-Hors or fates, who perhaps represent the 
seven mouths of the Nile or Sich-or which dry it as Succubi, 
or " kill " (Heb. Sheck-af) it ; though in the famous watering 
by Rebekah the ''trough" is Shok-eth; but Har Hat or 
cHar Hat, one of the most beneficent types of the Egyptian 
third person of the trinity, and recognized by the Greeks 
as Agatho- Daemon, but particularly worshipped at the town 
Hut (Apollonapolis Magna), may be referred to in this 
scene as Mosheh ; for cHar Hat seems also to blend with 
Thoth or Ta-cHut the scribe-god. And then (Ex. 2:21) 
" content " {lio-El ox Jio-El) Mosheh to Sheb-eth there, and 
we certainly seem to get here the Jao- or lao-god of the 
Chaldeans, identified by Laurentios with Saba-oth of the 
Phoenicians, whom we seem to find as the child-god of 
Egypt, of numerous names, of which the " Memphis " 
(Moph) Ai-em-hotep of the healer group seems the lio-El 
Mo-Sheh, and the Ai-mManu-El of the Isaiah (7: 14), 
watched over or born of an Aalem-ak (trans. " maid," Ex. 
2: 8; "virgin"), perhaps "immortal" (Heb. fern, of 
Aolam) as Bethul-ah is " virgin " ; and the child is bright 
and wise, but slow of tongue, or " lame " (^Pa-Sack) of foot 
as Mephi-Bosheth or " Memphis-shame." But this story of 
Mosheh's birth and shepherd life as lio-El or in Aal-u, 
common to many deities or heroes of the ancients, seems a 
separate document (Ex. i : 8 to 2: 23), dealing with him as 
the infant Zeus or Apollo or Heracles or Romulus or Sar- 
gon, &c. ; insomuch that one may well suspect his name to 



MOSHEH AND HIS SIMILARS. 69 

be for the giant constellation Orion which the Egyptians 
seemed to have called Sheh or Shek, and of which the dog- 
star Sa-t in it is only a more precise herald of the inunda- 
tion ; and in this character he slew a man, drove off a band 
of "the Roa-im," rescued the daughters of Re-Au-El, and 
" watered " {Sheke) their flock so rapidly that they got 
home at an early hour ; which incidents of this fragment 
indicate the opening of the career of a youth who did 
heroic actions, and wedded the daughter of Pha-Re-Au, and 
of course had first been his Skek or Ma-Shek-ah (trans, 
''cup-bearer" or " butler"), as Heracles, dying for lole, is 
wedded in El-ysium to Hebe ; and so the original story of 
Paris (Egyp. Pha-Re, **the Sun") was of this kind, for he 
put away his shepherdess when he secured Helen and went 
to Illi-um or Aal-u, as Mosheh put away his shepherd 
nymph (Ex. i8: 2) ; so Theseus did Ari-Adane, Heracles 
Deian-ira, which latter sounds somewhat like Deian Ra-ah 
or Midian "shepherdess". But the Ezraites reduced this 
giant deity to a more modern standard or concept, and 
make of him an agent of Jehoah and wise man ; changing 
the name of Ra-Au-El or the god Ra-Au (Ra and Aoh are 
Egyptian for "Sun" and " Moon," whence "the Ra-Aoh " 
or Pha- Ra-Aoh) to le-Thero or "fear" (Latin Tereos, 
"fright"), or the male of the Egyptian terror-goddess Taur 
(Gr. Thour-is), concubine of Seth or Typhon, and he was 
the Bes of their inscriptions, or an exaggerated Pa-Tach or 
Vulcan. 

And so the new or Ezraite concept of Mosheh, as divine- 
man, followed the ^sculapius or Thoth concept, the latter 
being scribe of the gods, as Ta-ut was in Phoenicia, and 
close to the Hoa or Ea or Nebo of the Chaldeans, and Ta- 
ut was identified with Saba-oth, and called by the Greeks 
Agatho-Dsemon or " good-genius," or the Chaldean Sak-Ul, 
which brings us back to E-Sacul-Apis ; and as Hoa on the 
Euphrates he is pictured in a fish-skin, and so the Dag-on 
of the Canaanites was perhaps Je-Hoah in a different phase ; 



70 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

and hence Ei-Than the E-Zerach-ite (i K. 4: 31), for Than 
or Than-Nin (Heb. Pi-Then, "asp"; Gr. Py-Thon) is 
rendered "serpent" (Ex. 7: 9), and Na-Than the vizier of 
David had power over life and death (2 Sam. 12 : 13, 14), 
though the word also means "gift" and "giver"; yet the 
Egyptian Neier (trans. "God" or "divine") may enter 
into that word as into the title which describes perhaps 
Mosheh, Zer-Oa Natu-Ieh (trans, "arm outstretched"), who 
brought the Israelites out of Ma-Zara-im (Ex. 6:6; Job 38 : 
15; Ezek. 20: 33, 34; Jere. 32: 21, &c.), but the Egyptian 
hieroglyph of an " outstretched-arm " was the articulation 
AA or AO, the Alpha-Omega sign of the early Christian 
tombs, and hence lao or Jao, while the word EI was over 
the portals of Apollo-Pythia's temple at Delphi ; but Mosheh 
received both the " sign " (^AotK) of the Nachash or " ser- 
pent," typifying "life," perhaps Seth or Typhon, and the 
sign Zor-Aa-ath or "leprous," signifying decay, or the 
white god Osar-is, or the second life (Ex. 4: 1-9), for " if 
they will not believe the sign Rosh-on, they will believe the 
sign Acheron," else the Jeor shall become blood as it dries, 
but the Isaiah (44 : 6) has lehoah Malach of Israel and his 
Ge-Oal Jehoah Zeba-Aoth saying he is Roshon and Acheron, 
and it must seem that the two passages are relative, since 
parts of the Isaiah seem to have suggested the bondage in 
Egypt as a story to frighten those who fled thither from 
the Chaldeans (Isaiah 30: and 31 :), for Isaiah (20: 1-3) 
seems to have gone there for that purpose, and says (Isaiah 
19 : 19-20) that at their cry of oppression to Jehoah shall be 
sent to them " Mo-Shi-Iaa and Rab and the Zilam," but this 
last word cannot mean "and he shall deliver them", though 
it may mean an "image" of Jehoah or type of him, as 
Adam was made, while Moshi-Iaa certainly is a striking 
word in view of what we have said. That Than-Nin, to 
which Aa-Haron's rod turned, and the rods of the Egyptians, 
means "serpent-fish" would accord with the meaning 
of the Hebrew words, as with the Assyrian Nin the fish- 



MOSHEH AND HIS SIMILARS. ^l 

god, and with the Egyptian Nun the "sea", but in Egypt 
two or three species of fish were sacred to Hat-Hor or 
Athar the fecund goddess, perhaps because they devoured 
the phallus of Asar-is. Mosheh seems to connect with the 
Chaldean Hoa or Ea, father of Nebo or a form of him, 
but as Nebie or ** prophet"; but for his death at the sup- 
posed Nebo we look to the Egyptian A-Nub-is, god of the 
funeral-rites and conductor of souls, perhaps more cor- 
rectly A-Nep, which character fits well with that of 
Mosheh as conductor of Hebrews in the Ma-Debar or 
" from-speech ", and with the other jackal-head deity Ap- 
Her-u, who was " lord of roads " ; but the god Nub-ti at 
Ombos was the form of Set or Seth which wore the square- 
ears of the hearing-god, also called Sat-em or Sa-tem, to 
remind us that ears have we but we hear not ; and Nub-ti 
has for face the long curved proboscis and mouth, which 
may represent the sin of false speech as distorted nature. 
We suggest that the name A-Nep, A-Nub, or ITub-tei is not 
the Egyptian word for "lord" or "gold", unless as the lat- 
ter the functions of this spirit referred to the Sun-set, but 
perhaps with Neb, a "bowl", since Hebrew A-Neb is 
"grape", and libations were so commonly offered to the 
dead; but it may be that his name is connected with the 
great town Nap-ata on the Blue Nile or Azer-ach, whence 
perhaps Nub-ia; for the ancient name of God in Nubia, or 
that part of Ethiopia which met Egypt at the first cataract, 
was Ch-Noub or Noub or Ch-Num or Noum, called also Ch- 
Neph, whom the classic writers recognized as Jove or Zeus, 
for the people of that region were at one time apparently 
the most civilized of all the ancients, and under this name 
God was a lofty ideal, pictured with the head of a "ram" 
(Egyp. Siu; Heb. Aait), and of whom the better-known 
Amen was a close variant ; but from his names we per- 
haps get Nep-tune, Ga-Nym-ede, the Roman Num-Ator and 
Numa, the Greek Nem-Isis and Niobe, the Hebrew Naomi, 
and their word Num (trans, "slumber"); and as the 



72 



SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 



Creator he is depicted as moulding man on a potter's 
wheel. Mosheh as Mo-Siu is not difl&cult. 




Set or Seth, called also Nub-ti ; the ultra phase of A-Nub-is ; and called by 
the Greeks ' ' Typhon.' ' Particularly figured at Ombos. 

The Chaldean Hoa or Ea, placed at the head of the Nebo 
and Merodoch theogany, came from the sea, and taught, as a 
learned traveller might do. He was the friend of mankind 
who warned cHasi-Satra that the gods had resolved to destroy 
the living by an A-Bub (Chald. "water-spout"; Latin Bubo, 
''arising"), the Hebrew Ma-Bol and Coptic Bolox "outside" 
or overflow ; hence Bal- A I (trans. ** confused," Gen. ii : 9), an 
allusion to Bel-Mero-dach, is the same as Bab-Il, the "inun- 
dation-god" (Egyp. Sa-cHar) or Noach "drunk" {Se-Char), 



MOSHEH AND HIS SIMILARS. 73 

a name of Osir-is and of the "Nile" {Si-cHor)^ of which 
Sa-t is the feminine, and she was wife of Ch-Num, and 
identified with Juno or Hera (Coptic Eiro, " Nile") or Aar 
or Jeor, as the Euphrates was Na-Har. But in the Jewish 
records it is Hoa or Noach who is the saved. The Chal- 
dean account makes their Noach or cHasi-Satra ''dwell" 
(Chald. A-Sib) at the mouth of the "rivers" {Naar-i) after 
the cataclysm, for he is "lifted-up" {Nasi) like the gods, 
or as Mosheh's " standard" {Nas; also "hawk", "flower") 
of the Ser-Aph or Nachash. In their narrative the god Bel 
is the particular enemy, as the Hebrew Ma-Bol or " deluge" 
is, while Ishtar is their friend, as Esther (E-Sether) was 
of the Jews. In Chaldean mythology Hoa saves the 
"Moon" (Nannar or Shin or Hur) from destruction by 
other gods, thus showing an afiinity of the two, as in 
Egypt Aah-Thoth was Thoth with his Moon symbol. 
Hoa as Merodach establishes "law" (Chald. Din) out 
of Chaos by destroying her, called Mummu Tiam-at: 
and he was the god-herald; who was also called Pap- 
Sakul ; while in the flood-myth Bel is called Qurad or 
"warrior." Rawlinson suggests that Hoa is the Arabic 
Hiya or Hij a, meaning both " serpent " and "life" (Heb. 
cHai, Hiayje-Hieh, &c., as forms of "to be"), from which 
we have Ehieh rendered " I am ", and so it is said Je-Hoah, 
which is very probably the name Hoa or Ea ; these words 
being strangely consonant with the grief cry Aehah (trans, 
"alas"), on which there seems a play when Aehieh-Ashar- 
Aehieh (trans. "I am that I am") says he has heard the 
cries and seen the sorrows of Bene-Israel (Ex. 3: 9, &c.), 
and so the Greek Ai or Hya ('Uo) in Ai-Iachs (Ajax) and 
Hya-Cinth, for the Hya-Cinthia at Amyclae was the grief 
over the Nile slain by the Sun, as also in the cry Allelu- 
lou-Iou (Heb. Hallelu-Jah or -lah) at the O-Socho-Phoria ; 
while Hoa or Ea perhaps personifies the Eu-Phrates, 
the Hebrew Pur-ath or Nahar, which irrigated " Chaldea " 
or cHas-Id (Ps. 16: 10) the "holy-one"; for the river is 



74 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

sent annually from Ur-Urad or Ar-Arat (" Mount ** or Har- 
Arat), wherefore Me-Urad, "water of Urad", or the god 
Merodach, the special deity of Babylon in its later period, 
is the Mordec-Ai who "brought-up" (Oman) Esther (Esth. 
2: 7) or "daughter of Love", who wedded A-cHash-Ave- 
Rosh (" Ahashuerus"), who must be the saved man cHas- 
Istar-a or Noach, and who in the Chaldean story is told to 
"sail to the gods." The Chaldeans said that their ancestors 
came from Masis or Ar-Menia, where the national god was 
called Haigh or Aig, wherefore Shel-Ag and Tel-Ag are 
"snow" in Hebrew and Chaldaic, and the latter had "arch- 
angels" {Igagi), which was a Greek word for "giants" 
{Gigas) like Ogyg-es and the Hebrew Og, and Agag who 
came to Shaul Ma-Adon-etk (trans, "delicately"), as well 
as Gog, &c., so that Ar-Arat must have been an Olympus 
to the Chaldeans, and even the Phoenician Malek-Areth and 
the Greek Ares may be suspected as derivative. Jehoah 
gives Mosheh as a sign that he has sent him (Ex. 3: 12) 
that Bene-Israel shall "serve" {Ta-Abad-Dun) the Elohim 
in the mountain, which was cHoreb, but Abaddon is else- 
where (Esth. 9:5) translated " destruction ", and the meaning 
may be that the mountain-god was to be superceded by 
Jehoah, as perhaps the Gibbor-im (whence Guebres) were. 
Howbeit, from Ar-Urad the Nahar (Naar^ "servant," 
"boy") went forth, and so did Nahor's brother Ab-Aram, 
the "father of Syria"; and both were sons of Ter-ach. 
Nahar had twelve sons; one of whom was Ches-Ed or 
"Chaldea"; another was Teb-ah, which is the name of 
Noach's "ark", or perhaps his name. A third brother was 
Har-an or cHar-an, a mere metathesis of the word Nahor; 
and out of cHaran came Abram. Merodach and Mosheh 
are connected in a curious genealogic fragment (i Chr. 8 : 
17-18), where Jethro and Miriam are brother and sister of 
Mered, son of Ezer-ach (comp. i K 4: 31), which Mered 
married Bath-Pharaoh, as the rivers Merad and Purat unite 
near Thab-Sacus or Tib-Sach, for, as the Nile, so the 



MOSHEH AND HIS SIMILARS. 75 

Euphrates is a "cup-bearer" {Ma-Skek), as it "draws-out" 
(Ex. 12: 2i). It was to Ea or Hoa that Senna-Cherib, on 
the shore of the Persian Sea, offered a "chest ", a boat, and 
a fish, all of gold ; and it is of course a mere coincidence that 
the name of Senna-Cherib recalls the Senah (trans, "bush") 
in which Jehoah or Ehieh appears to Mosheh on cHoreb. 
In Grecian cults the name of Hoa evidently appears in 
the word "Ocean" {Oa-Keanos), as Hoa-Kha7i (trans. 
" Hoa-the-Fish " ) was a Chaldean name for him. The 
Greek Pose-Idon is perhaps the A/fzsz (Chald. "Ocean") 
Adon, or the "abyss" god; though "abyss" in Chaldaic is 
Kerasi {Cheroze, trans, "herald," Dan. 3: 4), the Hebrew 
Cher-ash, whence "Christ." Nin-Ip, the Assyrian "fish- 
God," is merely another name of Hoa or Ea, perhaps the 
Latin Nep-tune or Ninip-Tan. Ea or Ma, was the town to 
which the Argonauts went, and it was at the mouth of the 
Phassa (Gr. "pigeon," "dove"), which river flows from 
Armenia. The name and cult of God as Hoa is possibly 
preserved in that of the shrine Shil-Oh or the "sent" 
{Shelach)-Yio2i, as it is there that Jehoah is said (Jere. 7: 
12) to have caused his name to dwell at the first ; and the 
Ezraites seem to have promised (Gen. 49: 10) the Jews 
that they would retain dominion if they did not revive the 
older shrine Shil-Oh, or that form of worship. ^-Non 
(John 3 : 23), " where was much water," may also have pre- 
served the names of the old " fish" {Nun)-%o6., as might be 
expected from the Dag-on of the near coast ; and at the 
Christian era, and for centuries later, his feminine, Der- 
Ceto as the Greeks called her, a form of the Egyptian At- 
Har or Hathor, was a favorite mermaid form of the Syrian 
goddess. And perhaps Jeho-Shu-Aa the son of Nun, who 
required the Sun and Moon to stand still for a whole day, 
and that his tomb or shrine was Time-nah, suggest the 
Chaldean Tiam-at or " sea." It also seems likely that the 
cry of Hoa-Sanna was used in reference to this phase of 
Deity. 



CHAPTER VI. 

MOSHEH AS A DEITY. 

THE ChaldeanvS and Egyptians were fond of triads ; usu- 
ally composed of father and mother and son. The 
last was a child only when represented with one or both 
the others ; separately he appears as an active agent. The 
primitive concept of the triad may have been that oi the 
angry Deity who avenges himself, and then has a second 
thought, called Nach-Em or ''repent" (Gen. 6:6); also 
"comfort" (Isaiah 40: i) ; which relation, when personified 
as a son, reverts necessarily to a mother for him, and these 
made the triad. A popular concept still is that of a majestic 
despot and his great "hand" (^lad) or divine-man (Ex. 14: 
3 1 ), if it be only that of an almoner to a beggar. The Teb-ath 
Gome or "basket of bulrushes" seems to suggest the child- 
god or divine-man. Gimel (Gr. Gama, " wife," " marriage ") 
is the third letter of the Hebrew alphabet, and the numeral 
"three," though Shelesh (Chaldaic form Tal-eth) is the 
word "three" or "third;" and so Daniel as Shalit Talitha 
(tr. "third ruler;" literally "third or third," or the word 
in both tongues); but the Talitha Kum-i (Mark 5: 41), 
addressed to the daughter of Jair-us or the "river" (^Jeor, 
Ex. 2: 3), perhaps the Nile-bride, is more clearly under- 
stood as the Tab-itha raised by Peter (The Acts 9 : 40), 
and is consonant with the Teb-eth Gome in which the 
virgin was perhaps annually sacrificed at the "inundation- 
face" {Sa-cHar or Si-cHor), though she was probably only 
placed in a boat and thus exposed to the waves when the 
dam was cut, when she would float to the Tele-ute ("end "), 

(76) 



MOSHEH AS A DEITY. 77 

the Greek name Plutarch gives Neph-tei or Neb-tei, the 
encroachment upon or amour of the Nile with the desert ; 
hence the Aail-eth or " blessed " of the Sa-cHar and her 
prayer (Ps. 22) ; for the Arabs say this custom was con- 
tinued till their conquest, and it is yet imitated at Cairo. But 
at other places along the river, say at Theb-es, the Tob or 
** beautiful-child," or Mo-Sheh or "water-lamb," may have 
been a boy-child ; a suckling or "weaned" {Gem-Ol) as in 
the Isaiah (ii: 8-10) ; and he was perhaps exposed, by 
being " hanged " {Thaleh; also "lamb") on a tree, to the 
Sa-t or Typhon, or to Sech-at (Heb. "destruction," "cor- 
ruption") the evil-goddess, or the "ship of the sea" {At, 
or Sack- At) or pirates, wherefore he is perhaps the Tob-eth 
(Lev. 19: 28) or "dead," perhaps the same as Toph-eth in 
the valley of cHin-Nom or Kh-Num or Ga-Nym-ede, for 
in place of " dead " w^e might read " beloved " since Tob and 
its variants are often so rendered. But the Isaiah text (11: 
8) is important in connection with its mention of Gom-Ol 
((5/, "child"), since Khom or Gom was the Eg3^ptian 
Heracles, called also cHek or Hek, third person at Lato- 
polis, where his father was Kh-Num and his mother was 
Neb-u or Neb-aut, and son of Khem and Amen-t at Thebes; 
and he bears on his head as a man the phallus and tail of 
a. bull or ram, emblem of "strength," such as Shimshon's 
cHoch (Judges 16: 9, 15, &c.) ; and Isaiah's "branch" 
{Nezer) seems as the Nazer-i Shimshon, and in Hebrew 
Nesar (Ex. 19: 14) was the "eagle" who brought Israel 
out of Egypt, and (Coptic Akhom) Achem is Egyptian 
for "eagle"; but it is strange that the names A-Gam- 
Memnon and Hektor should seem from the same Egyptian 
ideal, and thus seem connected with Mosheh and Shimshon, 
as with the word Kumi or "arise," and the shirt of Nessus. 
The story of Tabitha or Dor-Cas, raised to life by Peter or 
cHephas, both words meaning "rock," is laid at Joppa, or 
lopea, where Andro-Meda of Eth-Iopea, daughter of 
Cepheus and Cas-Iopea, chained to a rock, and about to be 



78 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

devoured by a great fish, was rescued by Perseus ; but Dor- 
Cas was perhaps not Der-Ceto the fish-goddess, nor Simon 
bar- Jonah, that Jonah who sailed from Joppa when swal- 
lowed by a fi^h, though Tal-itha Kumi and Teb-eth Gome 
perhaps both suggest Jonah's three days and Hosea's (6 : 
2) Shalishi Kime applied to the daughter of Jairus; while 
this Perseus, son of Dan-ae, same as the Persian Cyrus, son 
of Man-Dan-e, was himself as an infant set adrift in a boat, 
by his grand-father Acrisius, whose name is that of the 
Lake Acherusia near Memphis over which Diodorus says 
the dead were borne, as Perseus himself founded My-Kense, 
naming it for the Ma-Chen-t or talking-boat which required 
pass-words from the deceased, and which identifies Perseus 
with both A-Gam-Memnon and Zeus Mechane-us (Pans. 2 : 
22) and these ship-gods ; the town Argos having I-Nach-os 
or Noach as its founder, that is, its local name of Deity ; 
and in the Chaldean story of the Flood the divine boat is 
called El-Ippi, which seems quite like Hapi the sacred 
name of the Nile, and is Persian for "water" {Api) ; ap- 
pearing in the story of cHann-ah (i Sam. 1:5) perhaps as 
Menah Achath Appa-im, " portion of a twin sister " (trans. 
*' portion double "), as both the Nile and the Euphrates are 
formed by twin rivers, though El-Ippi may refer to the 
man-god character of the saved man, who is the Hebrew 
Nach-Amen (Gen. 5: 29), rendered "comfort", for the 
names in the Noach storj' seem rather to relate to Ap or 
T-Ap C'Theb-es") and the "Nile-god" (El-Hapi), as the 
Teb-ah also indicates, and at No-Amon (Amun-Ei or 
"abode of Amen") the patron saintess was Ap-t or T-Ape 
("the Ap") ; so that El-Ippi seems to mean something like 
the Bari, or sacred boat in which the Abarai-im or "He- 
brews " go over, or those who like Noach find cHen (trans. 
" favor" ; whence cHann-ah), as the "embalmed " {cHan-at) 
did in Egypt, and the Egyptian boat Ma-cHen-at which was 
supposed to talk recalls the beams of oak from Dodona 
which made the prow of the Argo an oracle. But the more 



MOSHEH AS A DEITY. 79 

conspicuous names of the triad at Thebes or No-Amon were 
Amen and Mu-t and their son Chen-Su or " Chons," which 
latter might seem Noach finding " favor" {cHen), as also 
reminding us of cHann-ah's son Shemu-El (i Sam. 2 : 35), 
a Cohen (or cHon?) of Ne-Aman, (trans. ** faithful "), to 
whom was to be built a house of Ne-Amen (trans. *' sure"), 
and he was **to walk before my Me-Siach," &:c., which im- 
plies that the name Cohen ("priest ") was from this name 
of the child-god of No-Amon, or at least that the name 
Shemu-El connects with that of the Sem or Egyptian pon- 
tiffs of the leopard-skin, Shemu-El's little Me-Aiil ( i Sam. 
2 : 19); but this wise youth, "counsellor at Thebes" or Ouas 
(Auz, Job i: i), was also the Roman Cons-us, god of 
"counsel," to whom the mid- August festival called Consu- 
Alia, at which an ass or mule was sacrificed, for at that 
season the Nile is in full vigor atTlieb-Es if not the Tib-er, 
and so "consul," "censer," " census," "cancer," perhaps; 
since Chon-Su is depicted wearing on his head a crescent 
and within it an orb supposed to be the sun, and is called 
sometimes Chons- Aoh or Chon-Su-the-Moon; and the Moon 
(Gr. Me7ia) as cHodesh (trans, "new," "new-Moon") was 
greatly venerated by the Jews, especially as the time-keeper 
or month-god, so that it is difficult to understand, with their 
worship of God as Amen, that Jehoah (2 Sam. 24 : 1-17), or 
Satan as he is called in the parallel passage (i Chr. 21 :), 
should have been so opposed to what might seem the cult 
of Men-ah (trans, "number") or Amen-ah, perhaps Meni 
(Isaiah 65: 11), rendered " destiny", but Menachi was a 
name of " the lioness" (A;-0<2/)-goddess, called also Ba-Sat 
at Bubastis and Buto, the bad Sechath or Se-cHat at Mem- 
phis; hence '^^x'h.2i-^s Kareban-Minech-ah (trans, "offering of 
meal," Lev. 2:1; comp. Jere. 44 : 19) ; and the penalty of 
David's enrolling in order to tithe for Men-ah was three 
days of Deber (trans. " pestilence "), during which a Malach 
"from the She-cHith'" (trans, "destroying") ravaged the 
country, as in Greece the Sphinx, daughter of E-Chid-ana 



80 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

(Heb. cHid-oth or "riddles," Judges 14: 18; Num. 12: 8), 
with her enigma at Thebes, and so (Gen. 24: 17) Reb-Ekah 
with her Chad-ah or "pitcher" is curiously called "the 
Gemi-AinV^ (trans, "give-me-to-drink"), which with re- 
versed syllables is Ainigema, the Greek form of " enigma ; " 
and Reb-Ekah may connect with the Egyptian cHaa or 
cHuu, or the lion-figure called the Sphynx ; whence the 
story of the servant E-Cho, who became stone, evidently 
came, and the Sphynx is depicted in the name of the god- 
dess Menachi almost only ; but Jehoah addresses the Malach 
of the Ma-She-cHith (2 Sam. 24: 16) as Rab Aathah or 
"great Athor" (trans, "it is enough"), possibly "great 
sign " if it was a comet, but this queer chapter seems at its 
conclusion to be some tribute to Jerusalem as the incident 
of "Araun-ah" (spelled Ave-Ran-ah and Arane-ah and 
Arav-An-ah) terminates it (comp. 2 Sam. 5: 6-9). 

The local deity at Shom-Aron or "Samaria" seems to 
have been called Jere-Boam, who came out of Egypt, and 
seems to have been the same as the Jeru-Ba-Aal, otherwise 
Gidaon or Beri-ith, worshipped at Shechem ; all being per- 
haps a phase of the " Joseph " or Aus-Api (perhaps the 
"abundant-Nile"), who was brought out of Egypt and said 
to have been buried at Shech-Em, though Shom-Aron would 
seem to imply that the Aron was there. And Jere- or Jeor- 
Aboam, like cHek and Har-pa-Krut of Lato-polis, was son 
of Neb-at, which Neb meant "lord" in Egypt and also 
"box", though at Nub-tei (Nub's house), a name of Om- 
Boo, where Seth is called Nub-te, Chon-Su is also the child- 
god of the greater triad as "the Neb-tei" of the lesser; but 

* The excuse for the textual rendering is that Game or Gome, the 
Egyptian Papyrus, is an absorbent reed ; but the word is Gemiaini, 
and Aini means " not", "nothing", if we are to divide the word, and 
** drink not " would be literal if we are to take such view ; but there 
is no excuse for using "give" in the rendering, while she replies 
Sheth-ahi^XQXvs. "Drink"). We take Aa- G^^wz-^zW to be a saluta- 
tion, though in such case the form should have been feminine, and we 
are probably precluded from suspecting a Latinism like Gemini, yet 
she became mother of the great twin brothers. 



MOSHEH AS A DEITY. 8l 

Om-Boo is the Bo-Am in Jere-boam's name, and shows him 
to be a form of Sheth or Bes ; for Har-Ur or Har-Oer, 
father in the lesser triad, is the word " cursed" {Aar-Ur) 
when the ground and Can-Aan, &c., displease Jehoah at 
Jerusalem: though Shom-Aron itself is the "hearing-urn" 
or coffin, since the hieroglyph " calf's ear " is written Sem 
as well as Seth and Ath, and the hieroglyph rabbit, with long 
ears, was written Un. The god-name Gide-Aon, however, 
at Shechem was perhaps from the "goat" emblem {Ged ; 
Gr. Gzdz and Ckaz7nar), called Seir (2 Chr. 11 : 15); but, as 
the Egyptians had neither our "G" or " D ", our word 
" Ged " or " Gid " would have as its written expression the 
word cHet (Egyp. " white", "silver"), and the deity cHat 
or cHar-cHat was a protector, called by the Greeks Agatho- 
Daemon, but somewhat like " Thoth " (Ta-cHu-ti) the 
scribe-god. 

There seems an epitome (i K. 11: 14-22) of these 
legends of Joseph, Jeroboam, Mosheh, and even of Israel in 
Egypt, where the Satan or "adversary" Ha-Dad, born to 
David when he had killed all the males in Edom, fled from 
Edom or Midian into Mi-Zera-im, and his child was Gem- 
el-ahof (not "in") the house of Pa-Re- Aoh ("the-Sun-and- 
Moon"), and was called Ge-Nub-ath, elsewhere rendered 
"thief," "gardener," but of course he is the same as Ben- 
Neb-at (i K. 11 : 26), the Samaritan name of Deity, whose 
story follows, beginning with being a servant of Shelomeh 
and over all the Sebel of the house of Joseph ; and this Ge- 
Nub-ath, "weaned" by Tache-Pene-Is, is Joseph as Za- 
Pen-eth Pa-Neach (Gen. 41 : 45) or Pane-ach, and Mosheh 
in his Tebah Gome ; and Tach-Pane-Is is perhaps a name 
derived from the Tache-Pane-cHis of the Jeremiah (43 : 7, 
&c.), where it may be we have the real sojourn of the Is- 
raelites in Egypt, though, as there is no evidence that 
Nebu-Chad-Nezzar was ever in Egypt, we should perhaps 
read Cambyses (Pers. Kambu-Jiya), B.C. 529-521, for Teka- 



82 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

Pani would be the " bound-face " as of a figuratively dead 
people, as the Hebrew word Tach-ath (trans. ** under," 
"beneath") seems to connect with the name of the scribe- 
god Ta-cHu-ti or "Thoth", just as the goddess Tacita at 
Rome, perhaps Taygeta at Sparta, and At-Tica at Athens 
and I-Thaca, though the two latter, as also Car-Thage, the 
Hebrew Teko-Eah (2 Sam. 14: 2: 20), Mene Tek-El of 
"cloven-foot" (^Peres), the "fastened" (^Teka) Shaul and 
Sisera, &c., seem more direct with Daniel's A-Tik of daj^s; 
yet probably all connect; and this place or "queen" 
{Gebir-ah) Tacha-Pane-Is, which Is or cHis implies Isis, 
came down to the later Jews in the form Pentecost or Pan 
Tachu-ti, or the " appearance of Thoth " the recording- 
angel, who came to initiate the assembled souls into their 
new life (The Acts 2 :) and to give them language adapted 
thereto ; so that the fugitive Canaanites at Tacha-Pane-cHis 
may have there, in what they might call the Ma-Debar 
(trans, "wilderness") or " from-speech " (Isaiah 19: 18), 
have "sworn" (^Sheba-AotK) to preserve their autonomy; 
hence the feast of Sheba-Aoth or " oath-of-help " ; for the 
words of this Isaiah text are notable, and Me-Daber-oth 
Seph-at (trans, "speak the language") seems to us ' from- 
speaking" (Ex. 34 : 33, Ma-Debar is " had-done-speaking.") 
Seph-at or "vainly" of Canaan (comp. 2 K. 18: 20-37, 
where Dibar Sephat-im is "vain words"), since probably 
two sects arose at that time, one in favor of returning to 
Canaan; and we first hear of "Jews" (Jere. 43: 9) and 
"Jew's language" (2 K. 18: 26), and (Isaiah 50: 4) of a 
tongue of Lam-Ud who " help" {Auth) the faint. Debar J e- 
Aiir (perhaps " watch-word"), as Lam-Ud (Isaiah 8 : 16), 
rendered " disciples ", now appear, and we suggest it is 
"silent- witness", from Ae-Lum, whence Aelem-en-ah or 
"widow" and Ael-am or "stripling" (i Sam. 17 : 56) and 
Aelem-ah or " virgin ", while Ud (hence lad or "hand") 
implies to stretch-out, as the Gem-Ol or " weaned-child " 



MOSHEH AS A DEITY. 83 

(Isaiah ii : 8) on the cave of basilisks "put" {Hud-ah; Je- 
Hud-ah or " Judah " ; Arabic K«^, " right way " ; Or, Hod- 
OS, ** way") his hand; so that Lum-Ud-i, "the taught" or 
"disciples" (Lum-Ud-i of Jehoah, Isaiah 54: 13), seems to 
have been some secret society of the G-Alem-Ud-ah Gil-ah 
(Isaiah 49 : 29, trans. " solitary, an exile "), or the " silent- 
captive "in Ma-Debar or silent -land who had a "captive- 
sign" {Sheba-Aoth) of the lad or "hand" when "help" 
{Auth) was needed; and the word Je-Hud-ah or "Jew" 
may have originated or had its application to a brotherhood 
in this way or from this sense, and after the time of the 
flight of lo-cHanan (Jere. 41 : 11, &c.) and the Chanan-ites 
into Ma-Zera-im, as the Genesis (42 : 11, 31) connects him 
with Na-cHen-u Cheni-hn Aan-cHen-u (trans. " we true, 
we") of Jakob's sons who went into Mi-Zera-im; though 
we suspect that for the name Shebu-oth we must look to 
an animation of the Egyptian U-Sheb-tei or image that was 
enclosed with the dead as if to designate the shape in 
which he should arise. The classic festival Gam-Al-ia was 
a household observance, like the Irish " wake ", held alike 
at deaths and marriages and births, and Jupiter and Juno 
were called Gam-ul-ius and Gam-ul-ia (Gr. Gam-os, " mar- 
riage"), while at Athens Gamelion was the month Janu- or 
Juno-ary of the Romans; the Hebrew Jan-ok (trans, 
"nurse"; rather " suckle ") of Mosheh. The word Gome 
(trans, "bulrushes") is not in the Septuagint, a version 
understood to have been prepared in Egypt, for pOvSsibly 
the Greek writer saw the connection with the Greek words 
we have mentioned; but, apart from the meaning Kumi 
(trans, "arise") which might be attached to it, so much is 
said of "midwives" {Me-Iallad-oth), to whom Pharaoh 
built houses, that one is forced to compare with the Hebrew 
the goddess Eile-Ithyia (the Roman Ilithyia), since the 
Egyptian "Th" or "T" stands for the Hebrew "D", who 
as Mu-t or Mu ("mother ")- Aalu-Athor was the saint who 
presided over "child-birth" (Heb. lal-ad), as the classic 



84 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

Luc-ina (Latin Lac) or " milk "-goddess, and the name Eile-' 
Ithythia was that of a town about forty miles south of 
Thebes which was her particular shrine, whose name is one 
the Greeks did not change, while her names, Suben, Nishem, 
Uati, Bubo, Mut, &c., were numerous, as the genius of 
maternity, but Eile-Ithyia appears as Lil-ath (trans. " near- 
to-be-delivered") in the story where the Aar-on was lost 
(i Sam. 4: 19) because the "vulture" (Egyp. Urau; 
hieroglyphic Mao) was the S5'mbol of motherhood in 
Egypt, though Lil-ith or "night-monster" of the Isaiah 
(34: 14) might seem otherwise elsewhere; yet women at 
parturition appeared perhaps both actually and figuratively 
as the Sib-yls (perhaps Zaba-oth or " serving- women," i 
Sam. 2: 22; Ex. 38: 8) in their throes, and these latter 
were much consulted as to births, and the Sibyl of Cum-ae 
in Italy had grains of "sand" (Heb. cHol) which repre- 
sented the " thousand" (Latin Millo) years of her life ; thus 
suggesting Ae-Zebb-Aa or "finger" who wrote the two 
tables of the Aed-uth (Ex. 31: 18) and cHul-Ed-ah (2 K. 
22: 14-20); and at Cum-ae she wrote on "leaves" (Heb. 
Al-oth) which she scattered, which was perhaps the Ma- 
Aloth or " dial" (2 K. 20: 11) of A-cHaz, or such as were 
" caught " {A-cHas), as the Sob-och of the Ael-ah " caught " 
{cHaz-ak) Ab-Shalom. Me-Iele-Ad-oth or "midwives" 
therefore seem to be the "Fates"; and houses were also 
built to her or them at Shechem and at Jerusalem, if Mill- 
Oa represents her or them, and the latter seems to refer to 
Pharaoh's daughter (i K. 9: 24), to whom perhaps the 
Aail or "ram" of Millu-Ai-im (Ex. 29: 26) was offered, 
as well as the Mol or " circumcision " since it means to 
"cut-off"; and so the nurse of Zeus was A-Mal-Thea (per- 
haps "black-goddess") or Ama-Lithea; while the two 
"heads" (trans, "chapiters") on the Aam-Ud-im (i K. 7: 
20), above Mille-Aum-eth the Betan (trans, "close-by the 
belly") and over the Sebach-ah (trans, "net-work"), seem 
some form of this conceit at the temple, and we had sus- 



MOSHEH AS A DEITY. 85 

pected Herodotus (2 : 102, 106) was deceived by rude or 
erasures of the winged-globes, but the Hebrew word Betan 
means precisely what he says were on the Amm-Ud, which 
could be " mother- witness " , for one may well submit that 
the Amm-Ud of cloud and of fire which led Israel in the 
Ma-Debar may mean the Isis and Neb-tei who attend Osir- 
is, or the ** vulture" {Urau; also Egyp. "victory") which 
flies over the head of the monarch on his way to war. 
But the two tablets of Aad-oth, written "in Ae-Zabb-Aa" 
of God, suggest Ma-Zeb-ah, also rendered "pillar" in case 
of Ra-cHel's and Abshalom's memorial or shrine, though 
the latter's is also called an Aad (trans, "monument"), 
perhaps the classic Ad-j^tum or " cave ;" but in another ac- 
count (Ex, 32: 15-16) of the "two" {Sheni) tablets it is 
said they were written Mi-Sheni Abereihe^n (trans, "on both 
sides"), which sounds like " from the second Abraham",* 
but literally " from two Hebrews, them " , though Abera-i 
or " Hebrews " must be taken in the Egyptian sense of 
those- who pass-over (Heb. Aeber) in the Bari or sacred 
boat; while a third account (Ex. 34: 27-28), which seems 
to connect with Exodus 20: i, seems to render Mosheh 
merely the amanuensis of Debir-i uttered by Jehoah, and 
we have Debir-i the Beri-ith (trans. " words of the cove- 
nant") explained by the three words following, as Ae-Sar- 
eth the Debiri-im (trans, "ten commandments"), but per- 
haps the same, since AeSar would be " ten ", while the 

* cHul-Edah (2 K. 22: 14) dwelt in Mi-Shen-eh (trans, "second- 
quarter "), which seems to mean there that she "repeated " the words 
of the "oracle" {Debir), ior t\i&y Debir Eele-Iha {trains, "communed 
with her") or spoke to her as to a divine personage, as she "to 
them"(£'rt/^ Ihem) in reply, for this latter is the usual La-Hem in 
the corresponding place (2 Chr. 34 : 23); this formula being frequent, 
but no more than " my Lord "or " Mon-Seigneur ; " but Mi-Shen-ah 
is Joseph's and Josiah's "second" chariot, indicating, as on the 
Rosetta stone to King Ptolemy, that they were to have shrines and 
priests of their own ; and so Mordecai and El-Kanah and Jonathan as 
•'next-to " {Mi-Shen-ah) the King, and Eli-Shea's "double-portion" 
and the Sen-ah or " bush " of Mosheh ; all perhaps tending to ex- 
plain why "the lotus " (Egyp. Pa-Sheen) was the emblem of immor- 
tality in Egypt. 



86 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

Egyptian hieroglyph of a "boat" is written Ser, or per- 
haps Zer or Zur, and hence Aa-Ser in their language would 
mean the *' great-boat ", as Ae-Sar-eth would mean those 
had passed over and were " Osiri-ed" or become as he; and 
the hieroglyph Ser has for its helm the Tav or "life" 
hieroglyph ; the observance of these commands being essen- 
tial to the passage through the Ma-Debar, which word also 
means *' water-oracle ", or through Mi-Zera-im ; and the 
process of "O-Siris-ing" is allegorized by the meeting of 
Jakob with Esav or "Edom" (Egyp. Turn or Afum, "per- 
fected"), when (Gen. 32 : i, &c.) Jakob is first killed (/<?- 
Pege-Aa; trans, "met") or at least "smitten" by the 
"mariners" {Male-Aachi-im) of God, and he called the 
place "the Hua " (Egypt, "the Oua'\ or "the boat") Ma- 
cHana-im, or the Ma-Chen-t, for Hua is the divine third 
personal pronoun " He " or " Him ; " and then Jakob sends 
his Male-Aach-im ("angels" or "mariners") with the 
usual gift or Mi-Nach-ah, but is " behind" {Acher-i?i) , yet 
his Sheth-ai (trans, "two") wives and Shetk-ai (Egyp. 
"foreigners") maids "pavSS-over" {Aiber) ; but that night 
while alone on the wrong side he wrestled with some-one 
till went up Sachar (Sekeri, a name of O-Sar-is), for it 
is Seth who seems to have been trying to detain him, and 
who avenges himself by making Jakob lame, but confesses 
that Jakob has Sar-eth (trans, "striven") with God and 
can Tach-Ul (trans, "prevailed"), or " run-to-and-f ro " 
(Zech. 1 : 10), perhaps to either Hades or Earth, or as the 
Pa-Tach or "Ptah" -"child" {Ul ox Aid) with his hand 
to his mouth as "slow" (^Ckebod) of Debir ; and Diodorus 
speaks of the Theke in which the body of the blessed dead 
was placed; but it seems that Jakob was " Osiri-ized " or 
named I-Sara-El, and perhaps got the Bera-Chatton * he 
asked for, which was not a "bless-me", but a garment. 

^Joseph's "coat "and Tamar's "robe" or Chatton-eth (2 Sam. 
13: 18); perhaps the Dios Kodion or "divine skin" of a victim 
offered to Zeus, on which the purified stood at the mysteries of Eleu- 
Isis in Greece. 



MOSHEH AS A DEITY. 87 

Mosheh perhaps belonged to that list which gave many 
hints to the author of the ^neid ; not perhaps as Ea-Nav 
or "meek" (Num. 12: 3), for this seems somewhat conso- 
nant with the sacred bull M-Nev-is; but the Nas (trans. 
" pole," " standard ") set up in the Ma-Debar seems a figure 
of the **hawk" {N'as)-god, as Ra, Osir, Amen, cHorus, 
and others are "hawk" (Egyp. Bak)-h.e3ided; and in the 
same chapter (Num. 12: 6-8) Mosheh is said to be more 
than Nebe-Ea, for he was Ne-Amen (trans, "faithful"), 
and Jehoah would speak to him mouth to mouth, and he 
should see Jehoah's "form" ( 72- J/z^w-a^fA) , perhaps (Deut. 
33: 19) "hidden-treasures" ( 7^-^ ;??««), though Tam-Aoun 
in Egyptian would imply the former as a " perfect-mani- 
festation" or theophany. ^-Neas, however, must be re- 
membered beyond Virgil, as he had been made son of 
A-Nach-Isis and father of A-Sacan-ius long before, and 
these are familiar words in Hebrew. 

The reported reform of cHizek-Iah (2 K. 18: 4-5), who 
broke in pieces the brazen serpent Mosheh had made, or 
under v;hich symbol he was adored, " for unto those days 
the Bene-Israel did burn incense to it," attests the divine 
character in which he had stood as the third person of the 
Egyptian triads ; but the statement of the time when his 
cult was overthrown seems largely antedated, for the Hosea 
and the Micah, written by professed contemporaries, say 
nought of it, and the Isaiah (36: — 39:) which gives four 
chapters to cHizik-Iah, is silent as to this reform ; nor does 
the ardent Jehovist of 2 Chronicles (29: 16) speak of the 
image, unless it be the Tume-ah (trans, "unclean-ness") 
expressed by the Pa-Im-ah (trans, "inner-court") of the 
house of Jehoah, but these names seem more like a femi- 
nine cult, as Tame-ah seems feminine of Ezekiel's (8: 14) 
Tamm-Uz. Howbeit, the zeal of cHizek-Iah was not fully 
repaid, as he was necessarily told of the dark future which 
he barely escaped; whereas, by some oversight, his suc- 
cessor Man-Asseh, charged with all the Ezraic crimes (2 K. 



88 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

21 : 1-18), is credited with a tranquil reign of fifty-five 
years; a statement creditable to the earlier writing, but 
which revolts the later zealot (2 Chr. 33 : 10-19), who con- 
signs Manasseh to captivity. But his grandson, the deified 
" Josiah" or Je-Hoshi-Jahu, had a step-daughter name Ne- 
cHush-ta or Nechu-Shet-i (2 K. 24: 28). The Ezekiel (8: 
7-12) seems to show that in the " second temple" Mosheh 
had a place. 

But the cult declined in the serpent form. Perhaps this 
conflicted with the Persian ideas, which were long felt. 
Then it was perhaps that Mosheh, a God to Aa-Haron and 
to Pharaoh (Ex. 4: 16; 7: i), is accused of not being cir- 
cumcized (Ex. 6: 12, 30), and that his wife opposed it (Ex. 
4: 25-26), as she was a foreigner; and he and his sister 
were temporarily lepers (Ex. 4: 6; Num. 12: 10). The 
severest attack, if attack it was, is that of the Judges (18 : 
30), where his grandson and posterity were priests of the 
idolatrous shrine of Dan in Galilee to the t^me of the " Cap- 
tivity." In one or two instances (Num. 20: 16) later 
authors deny to Mosheh the credit of leading Israel out of 
Mi-Zera-im, but the Male-Ach there mentioned is the third- 
person of the Phoenician and Syrian trinity, and special 
deity of the town Sappara on the Eu-Phrates; the "mari- 
ner" (Jonah i: 5) to Tarshish or the infernal regions; 
though the Luch-oth or "tablets" seem the Logos or 
" word " of later generations. 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE WARRIOR ME-SIACH. 

IN parts of Canaan, and beyond Jeor-Dan, it must seem 
that this concept of a mediator took on a more martial 
guise, as originating among warlike barbarians whose fond- 
ness for love and lore was less than their ideals of pillage. 
The word cHerut, the holy " child " of Egypt, seems the 
word Qurad (trans, "warrior") inChaldea; the cHarod or 
"trembling" of the Hebrews. Sha-Aul, Ea-Sav, even 
I-Shema-El (or "Ishmael"),' &c., present this warrior 
phase. Jewish annals make Shaul the first Mal-Ach or 
"king", as well as the first Me-Shech or " anointed "; eat- 
ing as he did the Skok (trans, "thigh") with Shemu-El 
and being Shek-ah (trans, "kissed") by him. The hier- 
archy make Shaul violent and unforunate, but not base like 
David or lewd like Shelomeh. Withal, Sha-Aul is the 
really majestic figure of the purported history. He may 
well typify the Sun of summer, and the Arabs yet call the 
month June-July Shawwal, the Greek Pan-Emos, the 
Egyptian Me-Sore, the Syrian and Hebrew Tamm-Uz. He 
was perhaps the same general concept as the Assyrian Nim- 
rod, as each was the son of Cush or Kish ; and as Nimrod 
was a Gibbor Zaid before Jehoah was (Gen. lo: 9), so 
Shaul was predecessor of David ; while Cush or Kish may 
be that " darkness" (cHash-ak) which was before or on the 
face of (Gen. i : 2) the Thorn (trans, "deep"). In Chaldaic 
story Merod-ach (or Ni-Merod) destroys Tiam-at or "Cha- 
os." Sha-Aul, buried at Jabesh or " drouth", appears again 
as Shall-um the son of Jabesh (2K. 15: 10-15). Sal-Av is 

(89) 



go SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

" quail ", sacred to the Syrian Melak-Areth or Hercules, 
and the Kore or "partridge", a name of Ceres or Perse- 
phone the Hades-queen, appears in the stories of Shimshon 
and Shaul (Judges 15: 19; i Sam. 26: 20). In the Koran 
the name given Shaul is Talut, which may be Horo-Tal 
whom Herodotus says the Arabs worshipped, and in later 
Arab story he appears as Thai-Abba the destroyer, the 
Thal-Aob-ah or "great-drouth" of the Hosea (13: 5), and 
Thaul would be a mere Chaldaic form of Sha-Aul. In 
Greek myth Tel-Amon of Salamis is father of Ajax and of 
that Teuk-er in Cyprus to whom a man was yearly sacri- 
ficed as late as the second century, and with whom we must 
compare the body of Sha-Aul Thek-ea or "fastened." At 
Rome we have Sol as the Sun, while Syl-vanus and Sil-enus 
are connected with the Pan and Satyr concepts, such as 
"Seir" (Sa-Aar), Az, Esav, and the "hairy -man" {Aish 
Baal Sha-Aar) Elijah. At the first cataract of the Nile 
there is an island of red rock, anciently a very holy place, 
and it was called Set or Sheth, but has long borne the name 
Sheyle, and the river when low or sick, or in what Diodorus 
calls the Theke or repository of the dead, must have been 
considered as "fastened" (Heb. Thek-ed) or even "cruci- 
fied" {Thal-ah) ; and this island is on the tropic line of 
Cancer, two or three miles above Syene or A-Souan (Beth- 
Shan?), and there the Sun is stopped on its northward 
march, as the sacred river is, which when low roars and 
rolls over the stones as it descends from the rival fane of 
famous Philae (Egyp. Phel-ak or Pel-ak) two miles above; 
and, as Sheth is Hebrew for " drink " and Shet-Aph for 
" overflow", one may be led to think of Shaul's struggle 
with the Pele-Skeih-im (trans. "Philistines"), literally 
" wonderful-flow", for that people were not so named out- 
side of these stories, which are seen (2 vSam. 21 : 15-22) to 
be the classic story of the war of Jove {Gevi-loXth, "body ", 
I Sam, 31 : 10) or Jupit-er {Gupath, " body ", i Chr. 10 : 12) 
with the giants; that is, the canalling of E-Gupt or Egypt; 



THE WARRIOR ME-SIACH. 9I 

for Rapha (trans, ''giant") was the name of the Nile's wife, 
whence perhaps Latin Ripa, whence ** riparian ", if not 
Riv-us and "river"; and Phile-Gesh or "concubine" is 
also " wonderful-flood ", and so to Sha-Aul was Riz-Ep-ah, 
who watched on the rock over his dead seven (perhaps the 
seven mouths of the Nile), during the dry season, for she 
was the daughter of Eai-Iah. 

Sha-Aul would seem the Sha-child ; the Typhonian 
"jackal" (Heb. Shual; Egyp. Sabu) of the long cropped 
ears ; emblem of Seth or Nub-ti ; a fact which couples with 
the other that the island Sheyl was called Sheth. In the 
older Egyptian there was no letter which stood for the 
articulation represented by our letter " L," well known in 
the Hebrew, and this is why Aal-u in their tongue means 
the same as the form Aar-u, their Paradise. Sha-Aul's 
name would thus be Sha-Aar (Heb. "hairy" and "gate"); 
and the She-Aol (or Hades) would be She-Aor, and this 
word Aor is both "light" and "Nile" in Hebrew, while we 
have explained that the hieroglyph of an "ear" was Ath, 
Sem, Set or Seth, and that the ass-head staff carried in the 
"left" (Heb. SamaoV) hand by the Egyptians was called 
Ouas or Sem, and Sem was the lower-world as well as the 
arch-priest of the leopard-skin; hence Shemu-El was the 
same as She-Aul, or the same Sethiccult; one being at 
Gibe-ah, the other at Ramath, &c. ; and this appears (i Sam. 
i: 27-28) where cHann-ah is made to play on the words 
She-Ael-eth, twice repeated in v. 27 as "petition" and 
"asked", and twice repeated in v. 28 as "granted"; "Sha- 
Aul to Jehoah, and he li-Sheth-ach (or li-She-Thach) 
Sham to Jehoah", which may be rendered in the light of 
what has been said. But they were both hearing-gods or 
"ear-gods", for (iSam. 9: 15) Jehoah "revealed" (literally 
showed the Azen or "ear ") of Shemu-El as to Sha-Aul, 
when he was told a man of Ben-Jamin ("son of the right- 
hand ") would be sent him, and he should Me-Shach-eth 
(trans, "anoint") him, usually "destroy ", to Na-Gid (?) 



92 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE, 

the people of Israel. Like Mosheh, Sha-Aul was a Tob or 
"goodly", which is Je-Pethach*s (" Jepthah's") land of 
Tob. Sha-Aul is sent to seek his father's Athon-im (trans, 
"asses"); Athun being the fiery "furnace" of the Daniel 
(3 : 11); but the rendering connects Sha-Aul with the Seth 
or Typhon cult. He went to the house of the seer Shemu- 
El, though the lack of a "present" (Tishur-ah ; Egyp. 
Tesher, "red", the color of the Oriental ass) was unusual, 
and the instructions received for his transfiguration or 
initiation (Mat. 17: 1-13; Mark 9: 2-13; Luke9: 28-36) 
are not clear. Shemu-El had told him he was the cHemed- 
ath or "desirable" of Israel, had poured on him the oil and 
pronounced him the Me-Shech of Jehoah, and then tells him 
to go to the Kebur-oth of Rachel where he would find two 
Ae-Nashim, who, if not Mosheh and Elijah, must be deemed 
the Kabiri, and they would reveal to him that the Athens 
were found, and that his father was anxious about his son ; 
that then he should go to the Ellon of Tabor, a "high- 
mountain ", and there would meet other Ae-Nash-im, who 
would feed him; after which he would come to the Gibe- 
Aath (perhaps "cave") of "the God", where was a Ne-Zab 
of Pele-Sheth-im, which seem to represent some sort of 
terror; and afterwards he should join a festival procession 
of prophets or Nebie-im, and the Ruach of Jehoah would 
Zel-ach (trans, "come-mightily") or "over-shadow" him, 
as in the Egyptian inscriptions the U-Rau or flying "vul- 
ture", tj^pifying " victory ", is seen over the heads of kings 
going to battle; and this completes the ceremony, for Sha- 
Aul can prophesy then, as he is turned into Aish A-cHar 
(trans, "another man") or "man white", or appears in 
" white-linen " (cHer) as the statue of the god was so draped 
at the Un- Cher or "show face" festivals of Egypt, though 
there is the usual double-meaning here, for " man of trouble " 
would be correct, while Aish Acher is consonant with Ai- 
Sacher or the " great Sekeri ", as Osiri-Sekeri was deemed 
faultlessly white in apparel, and so were the sacred vest- 



THE WARRIOR ME-SIACH. 93 

ment periodically put upon his statues, while the one re- 
moved was carefully preserved, whereas the drapery of 
Isis was of variegated color and not cared for. Another 
account (I Sam. lo: 17-27) has it that Sha-Aul was "chosen " 
(^Be-cHar) or "in white " by lot, and that when he found 
out this he hid among the cHeli-im or " armed men"; but 
he was found, presented by Shemu-El, and the people cried, 
not "god save the King", but ^' le-cHi-iXhQ Maleck^\' after 
which Sha-Aul goes to his house Gibe-Aath-ah, and with 
him went the cHail, usually "valor'*, possibly the same 
victory vulture as A-Quill-a, the Latin word for "eagle", 
and it will be seen that if it was "host" the plural form 
would be used ; but the cry Je-cHi-i was heard as Jakchos 
("laccus") on the sixth day at Ele-Usis, and was ex- 
plained as a procession in honor of the torch-bearer of 
Demeter in her search for her daughter, and he was son 
of Demeter by Zeus, bearing in his hand a torch the day of 
the procession, while the statue and its attendants were 
crowned with "myrtle" (Heb. Hadas), and these latter 
danced and beat kettles ; and so -^ac-us, son of Zeus, and 
king of CEnop-ia (Neb-ie?), father of Tel-Amon and Pele- 
us, hence grandsire of A-Chill-es and Ajax, was god of 
Hades, or was Hades or She-Aol ; but cHi was an Egyptian 
name of the ugly god Bez, and so the sons of Beli-Aiai-Aal 
"despised" {li-Bez-tick) Sha-Aul because he was "from 
cHar-Iish " (trans. " held-his-peace "), which is Aish A-cHar 
with reversed syllables, but is applied to cKur-am the 
"worker", the "plowing" Eli-Shea, to Shimshon's 
" ploughed " heifer, to Jakob when Din-ah is avenged, and 
seems to apply to demi-urgic strength or power ; the Coresh 
or "Cyrus" who is to build Jerusalem (Isa. 44: 28; 45: i) 
being this "workman"; and so Sha-Aul (i Sam. 11: 8) 
shortly after assembled his men in Bez-ek to fight Nach- 
Ash or "serpent" of the Ammoni. That Sha-Aul was Bes 
the hairy and hideous is also supported by the name Gibe- 
Aath where he dwelt or his chief shrine, and by the state- 



94 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

ment that he was Geb-ah (trans, "higher"), perhaps 
" monstrous ", from his shoulders and upward as Bez was. 

Chapter 12 and the main part of 13 of the i Samuel vSeem 
different from the Har-Ephraim tales, and are evident pro- 
tests of the priests against monarchy, but chapter 14 returns 
to the wonder stories, and its remarkable narrative has been 
commented on herein. The latter half of i Samuel is rather 
the note of David, for the cult of Sha-Aul or Bes seems to 
have been supplanted at Je-Bus before it was at the near- 
by Gibe-ah, but at last there is a story (2 Sam. 21 : 1-14) of 
its extinction there. 

Shaul was buried under the Eshel in Ja-Bish-ah, and 
Esh-El is a play on " fire-god " as la-Besh is " drouth." 
We have spoken of his identity with Jove and Jupit-er (i 
Sam. 31: 10; I Chr. 10: 12), as Gevi-ith o-nA Gupath (trans. 
"body") seem to imply, and it may seem that Hades and 
Zeus are not the same ; yet one must conceive of the wide 
abyss between Jupiter as Fluvius or Pluvius and as Amen, or, 
say, between the active or Malach in which he is the same 
as Heracles, Vulcan, &c., reforming and creating, a " maker " 
(Heb. Esh-ah), who "helps" (^Ezer) men, and the "de- 
parted" (^AzeV), "seated" {Sheb), &c., in which he judges 
on Olym-pus or in Hades. Sha-Aul is little noticed save 
as Sheol in other parts of the Jewish writings. In his later 
years he is found at Ma-Gal (trans, "place-of- wagons") or 
in "exile", and in caves, and sleeping ; and is slain {cHel- 
at) on Gil-boa, "for he could not live after he was fallen"; 
and his Nezar (trans, "crown "), the " eagle," which iden- 
tifies him with Jove and Osiris, perhaps the shirt of 
Nessos in the Heracles myth, was taken from him (2 Sam. 
I ; 10) ; but he clothed Israel's daughters Sheni Aim-Adon- 
im (trans, "scarlet delicately "), or " ruddy water yearly" 
as the Nile-god does Egj^pt when it comes from Kush or 
Kish. 

The variance of the Sha-Aul and Mosheh concepts seems 
that of warrior and priest ; well illustrated by the Sun and 



THE WARRIOR ME-SIACH. 95 

the Moon, by a substance and its shadow, by day and 
night, by the ruddy Nile which rushes down from the 
mountains of Kush and the pale Nile which wanders 
meekly through upper Nubia from some mysterious 
source ; the one rising forty feet at Khartoum, the other 
only six feet. The first "King " is always a ** warrior " 
{Gibbor) or "maker" {Eshah) or "worker" {Malach ; 
Oiej^ash): hence, as Gibbor, the "sword" {Choreb)^ as well 
as the winged Cherub, which as cHer-cHeb in Egypt was 
chief of the praise-singers, the Coryb-antes or Corip-heus of 
the Greeks ; though as "worker", in "caves" {Chur-im ; 
hence Chiram of Tyre) &c., he possesses "riches" {Esher) 
as Shaul (i Sam. 17: 25), Plutus or Pluto, &c. ; the divine 
smith being the Latin Mul-Ciber, perhaps Hebrew Meil- 
Gibbor or -Kiber (trans, "sepulchre"), though Me-Iail 
is Shemu-El's "robe", and he was Etah Me-Iel (trans. 
" cover ed-with-a-robe") when Shaul (i Sam. 28: 14) did 
**obesiance" (^Sheth-acJi) to him, thus identifying Shemu- 
El with Vulcan, and both with Sheth who "cut-in-pieces," 
{/e-Nathach-ak, 11: 7) Osiri, and to whom was the ram 
Millu-am (trans, "of consecration", Ex. 29: 26) or "black" 
(Gr. Meld) ram offered to deities of the under-world, and 
to whom the Mol ("circumcision"), and to whom the 
Millo-a were built. So as a "carpenter" {Cherash Az-im, 
Isaiah 44: 13) the idea of skill and subtlety are conveyed, 
hence a law-maker, a " prophet" (^Nebie)^ "healer" {Rapkd) 
judge, &c. ; so that Man-es (Amen-es) was the first king of 
Egypt, and the same as the classic Min-os, the Elohe 
Amen of the Isaiah (65: 16), which Amen was the Osiris 
of Thebes, more clearly at Memphis as Osar- or Sar-Apis, 
the Hebrew Ser-Aph ; and so probably Nisir-Aphah Seraph 
(trans. " burn-them-thoroughiy ") who built Babil (Gen. 
11: 3), this Nisir-Aph being the Euphrates as "water-of- 
Nisir", a name of Ar-Men-ia; and so Man-es built Mem- 
phis, and it was perhaps some revolt against his cult as 
ancestral deity that brought the fiery-serpents " {Ser-Aph- 



96 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE, 

im)y provoked at the sacrilege of rejecting Man (trans. 
"Manna"), which perhaps typified the religion or deity 
of their ancestors, as the Roman Man-es; and so the 
curious story (i Chr. 21: 1-27; 2 Sam. 24: 1-27) where 
Satan induces David to Me7i-ah (trans, "number") the 
people. 

Every locality around the world of that day had one or 
more versions and myths of the yearly cycle. The blessed 
one comes every year in verdure and fruits and flowers and 
fountains ; the torpid Earth and its habitants are " saved." 
The heat of summer and the drouth of autumn destroys or 
exiles him. The Euphrates and the Nile, which come and 
go in their irrigating powers as regularly as the Sun, sup- 
ply us with numerous ideals from Chaldea and Egypt. In 
most these, certainly if Mosheh was of them, the personality 
in course of ages became very distinct. No student of the 
subject would question that the myth of Osiris and Heracles 
are practically the same, and that they are largely made up 
of the action or effects of the Nile on Egypt, and the Jews 
were necessarily borrowers of the more refined rituals of 
their more intelligent neighbors. Some practices, perhaps 
of the Mosheh cult, seem repugnant to the writers of the 
Jeremiah (14: 13, 16; 23 : 14, 25-32; 27: 9), and the Hosea 
(4: 12) complains of divining rods. It certainly seems to 
us probable, however, that the Mo-Sha-Iaa of the Isaiah 
(19: 20) is one of the original texts around which the story^ 
of Mo-Sheh and the Exodus were built or adapted as a fit 
setting for the Ezraic laws, since it seems strange that the 
Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel find nought to say of him. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

LOCAL NAMES OF GOD AND GODDESS. 

ONE can only understand the religions of the ancients 
who knows that each town or tribe had its own 
divinity or patron saint. ** According to the number of thy 
cities are thy gods, O Judah!" (Jere. 2: 28; 11 : 13) was, 
said at least thirteen centuries after the time of Abraham 
and nine centuries after Mosheh. The statement was true 
of Canaan ; it was true of Egj^pt and Greece ; it is true of 
every nation to-day. It suited the hierarchy at Jerusalem 
to deride these local deities, most of whom differed only in 
name from Jehoah, and it was to their advantage to concen- 
trate on their town as a place of worship. These neigh- 
boring shrines were never abandoned, and even thirty years 
after the Crucifixion the Emperor Vespasian consulted 
that of Elijah at Carmel, only a day's ride from Jerusalem. 
Odious tales were told, however, of these rival places and 
deities. 

An example of this was the story of the Virgin of Mi- 
zepah, perhaps called Tan-oth (trans. " lament ", Judges 1 1 : 
40) or Athen-a. Though this is said to be Mizepah in Gile- 
ad, we may well suspect the story equally applies to 
Mizpeh, an hour's ride from Jerusalem, and the seat of 
government for a time (Jere. 40: -41 :) after Jerusalem fell. 
This latter (Mac. 3: 46) may be referred to by the story of 
Rizepah, and is evidently the Gibe-Aath of the Shaul 
legend, since her father is called Jepet (Gupat)-ach as 
Shaul's "body" is Gupat (i Chr. 10: 12). He was a Gib- 

(97) 



98 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

bor cHail, and son of Gile-ad and Aishah Zonah; the 
"zone" or girdle (Latin Cestus) of Aphrodite here appear- 
ing as "harlot" ; and Zonah is perhaps derived from Zoan 
in Egypt, called also Zar and Tan-is. Je-Petach suffers the 
usual indignities of young gods, and flees to the land of 
Tob (" Love") with certain Rek fellows ; which may mean 
" stars" as Rakia is a word for "sky", though perhaps the 
same as the famous Erach in Herach-les ; while Tob con- 
nects Je-Petach with the Tob-child Mosheh, with the 
"goodly" Shaul, &c., who are apparently Aimho-Tep the 
"child" of the Memphis triad whose parents were Pe-Tach 
and Sechet. While there Ammon oppresses, and Gilead is 
offered Je-Petach if he will deliver it. It is easy to over- 
throw the old year or Sun or night, and that is periodically 
done when the Sun comes out of Teb-eth, the month De- 
cember-January, or "ark" of winter or night. He vows, 
however, to sacrifice whatever first meets him if he is suc- 
cessful. His daughter, a Beth-Ulah (trans, "virgin") is 
Je-cHid-ah (trans, "only-child"), suggesting Rebekah the 
Bethulah with her Chad-ah (trans, "pitcher"); Izakak 
being Abraham's Je-cHid (Gen. 22: 2); perhaps the Achad 
(trans, "one") of the Isaiah (66: 17) ; and hence perhaps 
Kad-Esh. She has been watching for her father as the 
Morning-Star for the Sun, and she pales in, or is sacrificed 
to, his glory. He says she brought him Char-Ea (trans, 
"very-low"), but Kore is Persephone, wife of Hades. She 
bewails her virginity for two months on the mountain, per- 
haps sky, before she ceases to shine. True, the waning 
Moon is extinguished in the same way, but within a few 
days, while the Morning-Star is before the Sun for about 
two months ; yet the Phoenician Tan-ith, daughter of El, 
was understood as Ar-Tem-is, the crescent Moon of morn- 
ing, and the Persian Tan-Aita was typified by the star. 
The identity of Ain-Mispat with Kad-Esh (Gen. 14: 7) 
seems to connect this virgin with Miriam, who died at Kad- 
Esh ("eastern-light"), and who watched over the Teb-ah 



LOCAL NAMES OF GOD AND GODDESS. 99 

of infant Mosheh, as she was a virgin and vestal. Riz-Apah, 
though daughter of Ai-Iah or Ehieh (trans. "I am"), suf- 
fers even more at the hands of the Jhoavists, as she is made 
concubine both of Shaul and Abner (2 Sam. 3: 6-7). Per- 
haps the Ne-Dar (trans, "vow") used against this goddess 
connects with Shaul's Ain-Dor and the fish-goddess Dir- 
Ceto, as the word Tan or Tan-oth suggests; and this 
brings us to Adar and the Adder-eth (trans, "mantle") of 
Elijah, as well as the A-Dor-Eshah (trans, "inquire", i 
Sam. 28: 7) of Shaul. Tan-Eah is "coitus", and so Taan 
the " pierced-through " (Isaiah 14: 19) applied to the 
"Day-Star" Hallal; wherefore Taan-ath-Shiloh CJosh. 16: 
6) is mentioned in association with Jano (Juno)-ach, Atar- 
oth-Addar (v. 5), &c., and so Shimshon (Judges 14: 4) 
sought Toan-ah of the Pele-Sheth, and found her. Another 
Tan-is or Thin-is is the town of Egypt whence their first 
" King" Men-es came, and he was killed by a hippopotamus 
as Adon-is by a wild boar, so that the virgin of Mizepah 
seems much the same as Venus. And yet a virgin was an- 
nually prostituted at Thebes to Jupiter (Strabo 17:1: 46), 
no doubt Jupiter Amen, and this in the time of Strabo, as 
at Babil four centuries before (Herod, i : 181-182): this 
Jupiter being the Nile, for at Cairo a pillar of earth, called 
" the bride of the Nile ", is yet placed before the dam when 
it is to be cut for the annual inundation, as Pa-Tach 
(" Ptah") "the bound" has triumphed over death, and has 
"opened" (Heb. PethacK) his Phi to Jehoah (Judges 11: 
35-36), which again leads us to suspect the name Je-Hoah 
to connect with the sacred Oua or "boat", though it was 
their war-vessels which had at the prow the gaping mouth 
of a beast, called by the Greeks Pa-Taik-os. At the town 
Shechem, where the same concept of Deity was called Gide- 
Aon or Jeru -Ba-Aal, we see the Jeor name of the Nile, as 
also in " Abiezer" (Abai the-Aa-Zeri-i), and must suspect 
a close relation with the cults of Egypt. No popular cult 
could well be based on the appearance or movements of a 



ICX) SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

Star, for few people even in this daj^ know one planet from 
another, or even the constellations. The glorious disks of 
the Sun and Moon ; their effects as to light and gloom, and 
their effects on vegetation and weather and meteorology 
generally, were easily notable, but not so with more quiet 
stars ; though it is well known that as to Egypt we must 
except the dog-star Set or Seth whose rising was coincident 
with the inundation, and we may also suspect its constella- 
tion Orion, believed to have been called Seh or Sek ; and 
it is almost certain that to shepherds and travellers the 
day-star may have been the Bechor or *' first-born", or 
**cHer-Oze" (Gr. Keryx), or *' messenger" {Shel-ack; Mal- 
acK), perhaps "concubine" {.Peleg-Esh; Lech- Amah), or 
even typify the third person of the divine triads. In those 
days the priests were apparently the poets and astrologers, 
and to these we may assign such ideas of astral worship as 
obtained ; and hence we may ascribe the tale of the shrine 
at Mizepah to a fanciful working of a grosser popular 
concept. 

Further west and south, in the hills of Judea, their Deity 
bore the name David or Dad (trans, "beloved"); and, as 
the Egyptians had no " D," their equivalent would be Tat, 
the name of the four-barred emblem of " stabilitj^ " and of 
Osiri-Tat or -Tattu, which perhaps represents him in his 
earthlj^ character as he is not dressed in white when he wears 
this emblem. That David was the name of God or patron- 
saint at Hebron and Jeru-Salem would seem argued from 
the infamous character given him by the hierarchy, who 
make of him a bandit (i Sam. 22: 1-2), a cruel murderer 
(2 Sam. 12: 31), a perjurer to Jonathan and Shim-ei, the 
debaucher of Aor-Iah's wife and his murderer ; and they 
show him a traitor at Gilboa (i Sam. 29 : 2-11), there call- 
ing him "adversary" or Satan; but, worst of all, he was 
descended from a Moabite woman name Ruth. He would 
also seem connected with the Shem or Set cult, as he is 
given a brother name Shemm-ah, and sons Shemm-Ua and 



LOCAL NAMES OF GOD AND GODDESS. Id 

Eli-Shama. In Phcenicia Dud was son of II or Il-Melech, 
which latter the Greeks called Kronos, who in one account 
sacrifices his son She-Did or Shed-Id, which son in another 
version is called Je-Did or Je-Hud, as Isaac and Je- 
Pethach's daughter are called Je-cHid (trans, "only-child"). 
At Carthage, a Phoenician colony or conquest, the patron- 
goddess was El-Issa or Did-o, an evident form of Isis, and 
Dido was widow of the murdered Sichar-Bas, and sacrificed 
to lar-Bas (Jeor-Bes). The artisan Dsed-Aal-us was an 
apparent phase of this name or legend, as perhaps Apollo 
as Did-ymus; and David's musical phase seems to compare 
with that of Apollo, or Api-Aal-u (" blessed-Nile "), though 
more nearly with the more sombre Orphe-us or O-Rephe-us. 
Jonathan calls David cHali-Il-ah (i Sam. 20: 2), not 
"God-forbid", but perhaps "warrior", "devourer", and 
we may well suspect the name A-Chill-es, and we may sus- 
pect here the "hawk" or "eagle" (Latin A -Qm'l/a) -headed 
Egyptian gods, but in Egyptian cHaut, equivalent of He- 
brew clfai/ (trans, "valor"), meant a "general" of an 
army. Sha-Aul calls David Aal-em (i Sam. 17 : 56), but 
"stripling" should doubtless be "immortal" (Aol-am), 
which is Phoenician Ullom or "time", and Greek Olym- 
pus, and thence back to " Elohim " or Ealohira (trans. 
" God "). There are two accounts of the first appearance 
of David, in one of which the murderous old Shemu-El or 
"ear-god" goes to Beth-Lech-Em (i Sam. 16: i, &c.), at 
the order of Jehoah ; and Shemu-El's monster appearance 
caused the elders or wise-men to cHer-ed or "tremble", it 
would seem; and that he takes a "heifer" (^Ae-Gel-ath 
Beker)^ almost if not quite as exempt from sacrifice in 
Canaan as in Egypt, suggests that Bak was the sacred 
"hawk", and it is not said that he sacrificed it ; yet one 
must see that Ae-Gal-ath and A-Quill-a are suggestive ; but 
it seems that when David was made Me-Shach or "anoint- 
ed" the Ruach or "vulture" (Egyp. £/ra«)-emblem 
" shadowed " or Zel-ach him from that day and " from 



I02 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

above " (^Ma-Ael-aK), while at the same time it left Sha-Aul 
(i Sam. i6: 13-14) as the rejected. And the author of 
the Matthew (2:) places the birth of Jesus in the reign of 
Herod, who trembles and is feared (2 : 3, 16), while the 
Luke (2 : 2, &c.) has it in the time of Quirin-us and Sim- 
eon (: 25) as if mindful of " Keren the Shimon" or "horn 
of the oil " with which David was made Me-Shech, yet both 
have Joseph and Mary as parents of Jesus, which seems 
consonant with the Jephah or Jepha Mare-ah (i Sam. 16: 
12; 17: 42) of David, whose "beautiful countenance" 
contrasts with him " ruddy " or Aa-Demoni, as Esav was 
Ae-Demoni, for even now at a date in midsummer one at 
Cairo can hear the cry Jepha or " Wefa en Neel " when the 
Nile is flushing, or as the Egyptian might say Tam-Un or 
"the true manifestation" {Ta-Ma, "the truth"; Heb. 
Thorn, "perfect"), which as Tam-Un-ah or "form" was 
the Mare-ah or "appearance" which frightened Job (4: 16), 
and as the " form " of Jehoah which Mosheh beheld (Num. 
12: 8), or that Ta-Am-Un or "terror" of the sand which 
the coast tribes would visit (Deut. 33 : 9) ; wherefore the 
Egyptian cHar-Tumm-im or "enchanters", and Tim'nah 
shrines of Canaan; for the theophany of the Nile was 
meant ; wherefore Osiri-Tat is not white, nor David nor 
Esav; but Tisher was Egyptian for "red", and it gave 
name to the Hebrew month Tisheri when the Nile was 
ruddy with its flood. David's father is called li-Shai (not 
** Jesse"), and his eight sons remind us of the Phoenician 
Sydyk (Zadok), whose seven sons were called Cabiri, and 
whose eighth son was Eshamon, called by Greek JSscula- 
pios ; but we can not well connect David or Osiris with that 
lofty concept of God or Good. 

In the other version of David's appearance he is sent by 
his father to Sha-Aul at the Ma-Ae-Galah (trans. " place-of- 
the- wagons" !), a word in the singular to which the English 
version gives an impossible rendering, since as the " Ma " 
is often of no force we may far better suppose "the heifer" 



LOCAL NAMES OF GOD AND GODDESS. I03 

{Ae-Gal-ath') which Shemu-El took to David, though Ma- 
A-Gal-ah may mean "from -captivity" or "from-fountain" 
or " from-concealment ", though the appearance of the 
giant Pele-Sheth, called Gele-iath at the spot may have 
bearing on the name. Gele-Jath is important as giving 
name to Gol-Gotha in later times, and he is here called 
Bena-im Aol-ah (trans, "champion came-up"), perhaps 
*' brother of the immortals ", for Gibboram in verse 51 is 
" champion ", as against Bena-im in verse 4, since what our 
translators fail to know does not daunt them. This Gale- 
ath had asked of Isra-el (i Sam. 17 : 8-10), as an extreme 
insult, that they should Ber-u-Lachem (trans. " choose for 
you") a man "that we may fight together" {Ne-Leck- 
Amah le-cBid'); but Berach Lachem (2 Sam. 12: 17) is 
rendered " eat bread " (comp. 13 : 6, where Amnon wishes 
for Tamar), while Lechen-eth (Dan. 5 : 23) seems a Chal- 
daic word for "concubines", perhaps "catamites" (comp. 
Num. 14: 9). Howbeit, David, refusing to wear Sha-Aul's 
armor because it was not Niss-ak (trans. " proven "), goes 
forth with his sling and five stones from the Na-cHal or 
Nile, and slays Gele-Jath of Gath, and then becomes known 
to Sha-Aul ; but why David should take the head of Gele- 
Gath to Jerusalem, then possessed by the Jebusi, is not 
clear. In another place (2 Sam. 21: 19; i Chr. 20: 5) 
David is called El-cHanen, son of Ja-Aar-ei Aoregi-im of 
" house the Lechem-i ", whose name connects with Menor 
Aoregi-im or " beam of weavers ", but Ja-Aar or Jeor 
**irrig"-ator may be meant to explain the other term for 
the Nile flood. David or El-cHanen afterward (i Sam. 21 : 
9-10) found at Nob-ah the sword of Gele-Iath wrapped in a 
Sim-El-ah, perhaps the panther-skin of the Egyptian Sem 
or archpriests, and he took it to Gath; the place where he 
le-Tav or made the " life-sign" on the doors. 

Meantime, however, David had become Aalem (trans. 
"stripling") or "immortal", or passed into the court of 
Sha-Aul or Hades, perhaps of "silence" {Aa-Lem), had 



I04 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

made the king jealous, but killed two hundred Pele-Sheth- 
im in order to marry his daughter, so that li-Iakar (trans, 
"set-by") his name much (i Sam. i8 : 30), and Akar is 
"barren" in Hebrew and a name of the sphynx in Egypt. 
Sha-Aul's anger was such that David fled, and a series of 
adventures follows ; but some idea of the Jewish religion is 
gotten from the statement (i Sam. 19 : 12-16) that his wife 
used his teraphim as a substitute for him, for this man, after 
God's own heart was made out to be an idolater. 

During his bandit life David (i Sam. 25: 2-44) attempts 
to rob Nab-al, (A-Neb, "grape"), whose possessions were 
in Carmel ; that is, he was Priapus the " vineyard " {Carem)- 
El, a phase of the libation cult; but "of the house of Caleb" 
is not in the text, as that phrase cannot be made of the word 
Calibiv, though Caleb the cHeberon deity may be meant, 
since he (Num. 13 : 22-24) is connected with E-Shechol 
Aneb-im or " cluster of grapes "; and so Nab-al becomes Tob 
(trans, "merry") and Shichor (trans, "drunken"), and turns 
to stone when David threatens not to let him have another 
drink (i Sam. 25: 34), for there had not been left to Nabal 
by the "light of morning" {Aor Bekir) so much as one 
" man child" {Ma-Shetk-in Bekir) seems nothing more than 
a deprivation of Skethox "drink", as the Ma-Sheth-ah or 
"feast" of Neb-al shows, while the unusual form of the 
word Bekir, used for both "morning" and "child", can be 
referred to Bak (Egyp. " wine of dates " from Syria), 
which cHam (Gen. 9: 22) refers to when he mistakes 
grape-wine for it and told his brothers Bach-Uz (trans, 
"without"); for, if Ma-Sheth is "man" and Bekir is 
" child", then Nab-al's Ma-Sheth-ah or " feast" would seem 
one of human flesh, and the play on words possibly so 
means ; but we are perhaps to understand the story as an 
attack on the wine-god, Bach-Uz or Osiri-Sekeri in his Sheth 
or Sheth-Aph (trans, "overflow") concept. Abai-Gail 
seems to be Hebe- or Hapi-Gail, the Nile-goddess; and she 
is of "good understanding " ( Tob-ath-Seckel) and " beautiful 



LOCAL NAMES OF GOD AND GODDESS. I05 

countenance " {Ip-aih T-Aar), and T-Aar is the feminine 
Nile, and the larger island Bi-Ge, alongside Philae, may re- 
tain her name, for a temple-ruin is yet there ; but Sechel or 
" understanding " will be compared with Sechal-eih-i (trans, 
"played-the-fool") in the next chapter (26: 21). She is 
told that David had sent his angels or Malach-im to Baruch 
or bless Nab-al, and the youth calls his Adone-in or " mas- 
ter "son of Beli-Iai-Aal, &c., and that evil was designed 
against him for not giving his sheep to David ; whereupon 
she went to the outlaw secretl}^, carrying him food and two 
Nibel-ei of wine, and she tells of Nab-al, saying **Neb-al is 
his name, Neb-al-ah is with him ", the wit of which is that 
she may mean " folly " or " wine-skin " or herself as a femi- 
nine Nab-al ; but David yields, blesses her Ta-Am (trans, 
"wisdom"), &c., but "accepted thy person " {Essea-Pane- 
icK) may be " lifted-up thy face ", or may refer to " Isis 
unveiled ", as Joseph was the " hidden-one " {Zaph-en-atk)- 
Pane-ach, and Mosheh the " hid" (Ex. 2:3) or Zaphen-ah. 
She calls David, who seems to personify Egypt, "a sure 
house " {Beth Ne-Amen), and herself his Am-ath (25 : 28), 
usually " truth", and tells him to give her Berach-ah or 
" present " to his followers ; and the finality is that David 
blesses Jehoah that saved him from the cHar-Epheth (trans. 
" reproach " ; also " autumn ", " winter "), and he sends for 
Abai-Gail "the Carmel-ah " (not "to Carmel"); and so 
yearly still the crimson Abai or Hapi " comes-down " {/or- 
cd-etK) from her " covert " {Setk-er) in the mountains (25 : 
20) of Abai-Sinai or Ithi-Api-a, Am-ath or " true " to 
Egypt, or her A-Gapet or " beloved " ; but David or " the 
sure house " must also have the white-Nile, or " slumber- 
sister " {Achi-Noam ; Egyptian Aacken-Ama, " heaven- 
mother"), or "troubled-mother" (Heb. Achan-Am), and so 
he took her Mi-Ii-Zer-ae-El (25 : 43), not " of Jezre-El ", 
probably " of Mi-Zerae-El " or the " Egypt-God ", or " from 
the Zer-Aa"- or "leprous" (as "white") -God, just as 
Na-Aman had Zer-Aa, yet Mizer-Aal would mean " Egypt- 



I06 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

blessed." The inhospitable and barbarous Bus-Iri or Bes, 
whom the classics make Heracles " sacrifice " (Heb. cHeram 
or Zob-acK) reminds one of this Carm-El god Nab-al. 

But another version of what seems in points the same 
story makes Bath-Sheba the debauched wife and Auri-Iah 
the murdered husband. And yet the story of Nab-oth, a 
Carem (or '* vineyard ")-El, " stoned " (^Suk-al) by order of 
Ache-Ab or A-cHeab (trans. "Ahab"), is more identical. 
A-cHeab sounds like Kib-ti, the Arab word for "Egypt", 
and the scene is at li-Zer-Ae-El, whence David got Achi- 
Noam. Elijah appears Nathan (21 : 20) in " have-you-found 
me" {Ma-Ze-Athan-i). The loss of the "man child "or 
Ma-Sheth-in Bekir is again threatened, and we get more 
clearly to it as the "flood-Bekir" when we know further (2 
K. 3: 27) what Me-Shea did to his Bekir when the red flood 
came, and there was " wrath " {Kez-Ap) or " summer-Nile ", 
for this appears (i K. 22 : 34-38) probablj' as the blood of 
A-cHeab which ran down into the chariot * when he was 
slain by a man Me-Shech in Kesh-eth (trans. " who drew a 
bow"), or "in Cush ", "to his Thum",not "at a venture", 
but it is the Ta-Am or " wisdom " that David called Abai- 
Gail, which gives us the Thumm-im, which was probably 
practiced to ascertain the heighth of the Nile-rise by cHar- 
Thumm-im (trans. " enchanters "), and at that j unction of the 
two rivers now called Khar-Toum ; and they " washed " 
{Sketh-Oph) or "flooded" the chariot at the Barach-ath (trans. 
" pool") of Shom-Eron (trans. " Sam-aria "), though Barach- 
ath is the "curse" (21 : 10) of Nab-oth. In the case of 
Auri-Iah we have distinctly the Aur or Jeor, and as the 
Nile he seems stricken by David as the Sun, in which case 
Bath-Sheba would be Egypt, but in this instance the child 
is sacrificed or " struck " {Gop). 

In the 2 Samuel, a book which elaborates the career of 

*The word Ra-Chab (trans, "chariot") is similar to Ra-Hab or 
"Egypt" (Isaiah 30 : 7 ; 51 : 9 ; Job 26 : 12 ; Ps. 87 : 4 ; 89 : 10), and 
it was into the bottom of the Rachab that the blood of Acheab ran. 



LOCAL NAMES OF GOD AND GODDESS. IO7 

David, is alone found the story of Ab-Shalom's revolt, for 
the pious Chronicler rejects it, as he does the storj^ of Auri- 
lah (i Chr. 20: i), and that of Nab-al. The importance 
of the Ab-Shalom story is that it seems to be an attempt to 
make of it a descent into Hades, which was a ver}^ popular 
subject among the ancients, and which attested the immor- 
tality of their heroes, though in this case the Egyptian 
idea of Osiri-Sekeri or Noach in the divine boat is ap- 
parent. David first flees (2 Sam. 15: 17) to the house of 
"the Merach-ak", which sounds like Mercury, who accom- 
panied Orpheus and others. He then goes up in the Ma- 
Aal-eh of the Zeith-im (15: 30), rendered "Ascent of the 
Olives", and he is "weeping {Boc-ah), his head cHeph-ui, 
and "barefoot" {cHeph), though this might also seem 
"covered." At the top of what is understood as Mount of 
"Olives" (Gr. Ela-ion, Luke 21: 37), "which worshipped 
there to God", David met cHush-ai the A reck-t {perhaps 
"of the wayfarers"), who was sent back to betray Ab- 
Shalom and foil Aach-Ithop-El. Further on Zi-Ibae has 
asses and food, and he is given the property of Mephi-Ib- 
Sheth, son of Jonathan. David then reaches Ba-cHur-im, 
which means "in whites" or "in linens", for he seems now 
at the sacred lake A-Cher-usa where the dead were judged; 
and Shime-Ai who testifies against him seems to represent 
Sem-u,* "conspirator" against Osiri, or the Amen-ti of 
which Sem was a name; and the effect of which testimony 
at the lake, if believed, was to bar the corpse from passing 
over; hence (16: 14) David became faint, and "li-Naphesh 
Sham" seems to imply that he received another "life" or 
"soul" there; but the priests (17: 16) gave permission, 
saying for him not to lodge that night " in Aa-Bar-oth of 
the Ma-Debar", but Aa-Bor tha-Aa-Bor (trans, "in any 
wise pass over"), and the pass-over was effected (: 21-22) ; 
but this seems to us as if alluding to the Bari or sacred 

* Sa-Mu would be Egyptian for " inundation-water." 



I08 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

boat, as Ma-Debar to the place of silence. And so they 
came to Ma-cHana-im-ah, which as Ma-Chen-t is the boat 
in the 99th chapter of the " Ritual of the Dead " that speaks 
and demands pass-words ; and hence they found Shobi or 
the U-Sheb-tiu image which was placed with their dead, 
and Ma-Chir of Lo-Debar or " no-speech ", &c., who brought 
beds and victuals, for " the people are hungry and thirsty 
and weary in Ma-Debar" (17: 2729). But this great 
trouble ends by the sacrifice of the king's son, by Joab, for 
in Egyptian Aab means an " offering " ; and we have it (19 : 
18) "and Ai-Ber-ah the Aa-Bar-ah to Aa-Bir" (trans, 
"and went-over a ferry-boat to bring-over") &c., and 
Shime-Ai fell down before the King "in his Aa-Ber in 
Joreden ", for it is not " when he was come over Jordan " ; 
but, as the representative of Sem or Amen-ti, or She-Aol, 
it was perhaps necessary in the mysteries for such charac- 
ter to confess error and defeat, as well as the immortality 
of the "Osiri-ized", or of the risen from the dead, for 
Sheme-Ai had Sik-El or "cast" stones at David as he was 
going to what at Ele-Usis was called Mystikos Sak-os or 
"mystic cell", and now as a Devil or "ear "-god he is the 
first to recognize him, just as the demoniacs were the first 
to recognize Jesus. Mephi-Ib-Sheth, also of the house of 
Sha-Aul (19 : 24) or Hades, who is Pa-Sach or "lame" , and 
who is our Mephi-Stoph-El, is the second Devil that met 
David, told him all the house of Sha-Aul were "men of 
death", and said let Zi-Ib-ae take all since the "Lord" 
{Adon-ai) had come; and Mephi-Ib-Sheth had dwelt (2 
Sam. 9: 3-6) in Lo-Debar or land of "No-Speech", and 
David had shown him the "kindness" {cHesid) or "holy- 
one" of God, who is David himself, who is Hesiod the 
poet-god, worshipped in parts of middle Greece, whose 
father came from " Heaven " (Egyp. Aal-u) or ^oi-ia, and 
who was born at A-Sakara or as Osiri-Sekari. Zi-Ib-ae or 
" Ziba " is perhaps merely a form of the U-Sheb-ti image, 
better represented (20; i, &c.) by Sheb-Aa, son of Bi- 



LOCAL NAMES OF GOD AND GODDESS. IO9 

Cher-ii. Barzill-Ai of Rogell-im implies perhaps Vulcan, 
as Barzil is "iron" and Rogellim is **feet." But we may 
have slight evidence of our hypothesis in the fact that A- 
Mas-aa (19: 13) is consonant with the Greek word Mys-tai, 
while quite valuable is that (19: 21-22) where the Me- 
Shiach of Jehoah rebukes the sons of Zeru-Iah, calling 
them Sa^an {trans. ** adversaries"), and Zer is *' enemy", 
among other things. Death would have followed the reve- 
lation of the mysteries in Egypt perhaps as in Greece; 
hence possibly the assassination of A-Mas-aa; but this fact 
may explain why these Har Ephera-im stories are given a 
historic setting with vague allusions ; but we think they 
originated in the life and death of the mysterious Nile or 
Sichor or Aur. Aab-Shalom may well be the impetuous 
red Abai from Cush at whose death the Cush-ii ran to say 
that David or Egypt was judged of his Aob-i, and whose 
revolt expresses some extraordinary rise ; as, indeed, by a 
confusion of legends his slayer J-Oab may have been the 
same, for he too was slain ; one being buried in a great 
Pe-cHath (Egyp. "lioness") in the lai-Aar (tr. "forest") 
and the other in the Ma-Debar (tr. "wilderness"); but 
"Ioab"or lo-Aab was not slain for slaying Aab-Shalom. 
But the Pered or "mule" may typify the white Nile, the 
Abad or Obed, as Pa-Aret or "the milk" w^ould be the 
Egyptian equivalent ; but the ass was deemed a Seth-ic 
animal by the Egyptians, who at the town Kopt-os annu- 
ally threw one over a precipice, while at Rome a mule was 
annually sacrificed to the god Con-Sus, the Egyptian Chon- 
Su, divine son of Amen at Thebes and of Sebak {Sobach, 
"thick-boughs"?) at Ombos, and at Lampsakos (Elohim 
Pa-Sach ?) a mule was sacrificed annually to the god 
Priapus, perhaps "the Repha" (Egyp. "the wine "-god), 
but Rapha was wife of the Nile ; but in Canaan it must 
seem that, as David buried the bones of Sha-Aul and not 
the body of his own son, over whom he shed crocodile tears, 
the cult of Sheth or Shadd-Ai or Zad-ok regarded the Pered 



no SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

of Aab-Shalotn as their deliverer from him, and a type of 
the " hearing "-god. 

The time came, however, when David or Egypt gat no 
li-cHam (i K. i : i), so they sought a virgin to ''cherish" 
{Sechen-eth) him. The Ge-Bul of Israel suggests, not 
"coasts", but the virgin of the *' inundation" (Coptic Bol; 
Heb. Ma-Bul and A-Bel, and for which the Ju-Bil-ee). 
That Aabi-Shag (Hapi-Shag) was the "bride of the Nile" 
seems supported by the Sha-Ag-athi (Ps. 22 : 2) or "roar- 
ing " which is said of the exposed victim in that Psalm, 
which should rather be "raving", as a "mad-man" {Ma- 
Sha-Gd), as David at Gath (i Sam. 21 : 14) ; and we sus- 
pect "the Pi-Seg-ah", to which Mosheh went (Deut. 34: i) 
in his last moments, to be the same as Abai-Shag, who was 
the Abai or Hebe to whom Heracles went at death ; but 
the virgin was perhaps only exposed in most cases, and 
afterwards was sacred to the priest, for, while Sheg-al is 
"queen" in several places (Nehe. 2: 6), the fierce intol- 
erance of the Jews rendered Sheg-al a very obscene word 
(Jere. 3:2; Isaiah 13: 16; Zech. 14: 2; Deut. 28: 30), and 
perhaps because of this practice both on the Euphrates and 
the Nile; but how sacred this woman was may be seen 
when (i K. 2 : 13-25) Adoni-Jah is put to death for asking 
that Abai-Shag be given to him as wife. That she was 
"the Shunn-Am-ith " or "year-maid" tends to uphold this 
view ; and this connects her with the great woman Shun- 
Em or Shu-Nem (2 K. 4: 8, &c.), whom Eli-Shea paid 
with a child for her cHarad or "care", and this means 
Harpocrates or cHar pa-Cherat, the god-child who is 
always pointing to his lips or "head" (2 K. 4: 19). 

The era assigned David (Dad or Dod) is that assigned to 
Od-ysse-os and the war of the gods at Ilium, and the Latin 
Aul-ysses is very like Eal-Ishea or (reversed) I-Sha-Aol, 
and the Od-yssey is an elaboration of the descent into 
Hades, represented in the " Mysteries ", and indicative of a 
belief in the immortality of the soul. Od-Isse-os and Dod 



LOCAL NAME OF GOD AND GODDESS. 



Ill 



ben-Ishai (-"Jesse") each fights giants where stones are 
flung, each destroys those who seek his wife, each feigned 
madness, each introduced a vessel into a stronghold (2 Sam. 
6 : 12), &c. ; and, indeed, Penelope was daughter of Daed- 
Al-us the Phoenician. But that the name Dad or David is 
that of Osiri-Tat or Osiri the " established " seems to us 
clear from phrases such as David utters (i K. 2 : 4). That 
a royal line is said to have claimed descent from him was 
scarcely as much as that every purified soul of the Egyptian 
dead was called Osiri, and the living Isera-El-ites did the 
like. 




Osir-Tat. or Osiris representing ' • stability ", or perhaps the permanence of Nature 
and its procedure; and t >e sign of stability is the barred tigure on his head. It 
may represent Osir in his earthly character as he is not in white or cerements. 
He has the scourge and the crook in his hands. 



112 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

Shim-shon (trans. " Samson ") was more like the classic 
Heracles. Both are Arach or Arag (trans. " weavest " and 
'* beam "), perhaps " org-anizer ", '* irrig-ator " ; and Arach 
is also " wayfarer " and ** array " ; and Arach-les " wove '* 
at the feet of Om-Phale, daughter of Jardan-us or Jeor- 
Adon-ai (Heb. ''descending-god"); and Peli-ei (trans. 
" wonderful ") seems the Malach-Jehoah who begot Shim- 
shon (13: 9). His putative father was Ma-Noach, per- 
haps the flood-god, father of Shem, and he was of Zore-ah, 
perhaps " Tyre " (Heb. Zor), and the Melek-Arth god of 
Tyre seems the Malek of Sappara on the Euphrates, the 
Akkadian Mulg-es, son in the triad there. Shim-shon's 
mother was A-Kar-ah (trans, "barren"), which suggests 
Kore or Persephone, and allusion is made to her (Judges 
15 • 9) when the "fountain" of the Kore in Lechi is opened 
and Shim-shon " drank " {Ment), though Lechi and Meni 
suggest Alc-Mena, mother of Heracles. During pregnancy 
his mother was not to drink Jain or Shechar (13 : 14), just 
as the angel told Zachar-Iah (Luke i : 15) that his son 
John should drink no " wine " or Sekera ; and that this 
shows the Sheth or Bes cult appears further from the 
prohibitation of a "razor" (^Moreh; also "rain") on his 
head, as the Egyptian priests were shorn bald, yet this does 
not necessarily imply hostility to Osiri-Sekeri, whose phase 
as " Ptah " or Pa-Tach (Vulcan) Shimshon somewhat 
represents. He was to be a Nezir Elohim (not " Nazarite 
unto God", but "Nezir God"), or "eagle-god" (comp. 
Nesari,^^. 19: 4), like Nebu-Chad-Nezzar (Dan 4: 33), 
as the great deities of Egypt were " hawk "-headed, the 
Greek Hierax (" hawk ") probably giving name to Herach- 
les or Hierax- A7<?2i75 (" glory ") ; and so (13 : 25), when he 
grew up, the Ruach of Jehoah began to move him in Ma- 
cHan-ah-Dan, between Zore-ah and E-Sheth-Aol, perhaps 
between the " rock " and the " flood ". The original 
account of him evidently closed at Judges 15 : 30, which 
would omit the story of Delilah, and of his imprisonment 



LOCAL NAMES OF GOD AND GODDESS. II3 

and death. That he first went to Tim-En-ath-ah, with the 
Ruach or '* victory" wings over him, accords with our view 
that Tam-Un means the appearance of the crimson (E-dom 
or E-Tam) flood, which was no doubt celebrated by a feast 
of seven days ( 14 : 10), " for so did the Ba-cHur-im " ; and 
the stature of Hapi or cHek was of course " in white ", and 
it was carried through all the towns ; besides which his 
name cHek (whence Hec-ate, Hector) is the " strength " 
{cHocJi) of Shimshon, and the god cHek is depicted wear- 
ing on his head the phallus of some beast, the hieroglyph 
cHek and Pech. His " seven locks " {Sheba Ma-cHel-Eph- 
oth) are probably the seven fates or Hathors, hence the 
scissors of Atropos (Athor-Api), and may represent the 
seven mouths or seven channels of the Delta, as Mi-Chal 
(2 Sam. 17 : 20) is rendered ** brook ", and such as could at 
times be crossed on foot, and as Mi-Chal bath-Sha-Aul could 
be made barren, and Shimshon " become- weak " {cHell-ah) ; 
but the **web" (16: 10, 13) clearly alludes to Delilah as 
Ma-Sechath (Heb. " destroy "," slay ", "corruption") the 
evil goddess at Memphis, wife of Pe-Tach or " Ptah ", and 
there seems a play on the latter name (14: 15) when she 
is told Pa-Thi (trans. *' entice ") ; and so the locks are shorn 
while he sleeps upon Bir-ache-ah (trans, "her knees"), a 
word neither possessive nor plural, hence probably of 
duplicate meaning; after which De-Lilah began to Aann-otk 
(trans, "afflict"; comp. Aon-oth-ah, Ex. 21 : 10; "bound", 
Hosea 12 : 10), and his cHoch " went-from " {la-Isar) him, 
suggesting the mutilated Osir-is; but Jakob also (Gen. 49 : 
3) had cHoch and Aon (trans, "might " and " strength ") if 
the words do not apply to the lusty Reuben. They then 
Assar or " bind " Shimshon, and " he did grind in the house 
of the Asi-Iri-im ", or " Osiri-ised", though " grind " (^To- 
cHan) or "embalm" (la-Chan) may refer to A-Nub-is. 
This second story perhaps ended there, and the subsequent 
exploit added to round out his life. Shimshon, as also 
Heracles, has been considered by many as a solar myth, and 



H4 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

his name may easily be used to support the view, for Shem- 
Esh was both Assyrian and Hebraic for the Sun, as Lilah 
or Te-(Egyp. "she") Lilah is the usual Hebraic for the 
"Night" which shears his rays, and we have no doubt that 
parts of his story support the argument ; but it is not al- 
lowable to be too precise in our identification of any of these 
myths with particular physical things or phenomena, since 
in this case we see that his " strength " or cHoch implies 
the Egyptian Hapi or cHek which was the beneficent Nile- 
flow ; to which may be added that the month Choiak (Oc- 
tober-November) is with the preceding month Athor the 
time when the ruddy waters are in their fecundating 
strength. We may connect his cult with that of Bes, Sheth, 
Esav, Sha-Aul, Moloch, Chem-osh, Elijah, Melek-Arth, 
Shemu-El, &c., or the forces of Nature in operation which 
are both beneficent and destructive. 

Shemu-El (trans. "Samu-El") was a priestly and more 
recent phase of Shimshon, and further inland, as well as far 
more typical of the fierce and barbarous Jewish dervish. 
The Mei-Ail or " robe " made for him by his mother yearly, 
and worn by him when (i Sam. 28 : 18) resuscitated by the 
Sibyl, connecting as this does with the Egyptian " arch- 
priest" or Sem, who wore the leopard-skin, shows the close 
relation of the two people in their religious ideals and rites, 
as this robe also identifies him with Elijah, Bes, Heracles 
Mel-Ampyges or " black-back." But Sem in Egypt was 
also a name of the Sha or square-eared ass- jackal which 
was the symbol of Evil or the god Sheth-Nub-ti, as Sem 
was also a name of Amenti or " hidden-house ", expressed 
by the ass-head or jackal-head staff, called Ouas or Sem, 
and held in the "left" or "left-hand" (Heb. Same-al or 
Sem-ol), Shemu-El's mother was cHann-ah, wife of El- 
Kan-ah ; and he was of Ra-Matha-im Zephim of the mys- 
terious Har Ephera-im ; and Ra-Math would seem to mean 
the "dead-Sun", while El-Kamia is " God- Jealous" in the 
Decalogue, but perhaps "God of Cana-an." The name 



LOCAL NAMES OF GOD AND GODDESS. II5 

cHann-ah or " Hann-ah " seems from the older Egyptian 
" prophetess", called Neter cHen-t or " divine regent ", and 
hence the Neder of cHann-ah or her '* vow ", and so the 
"grace" (cHen) she asks is the Cohen or "priest" him- 
self ; but, besides, the priestesses of Amen at Thebes were 
called Ken-em-t, or by the Greeks Palla-kides. In the story 
of Jakob we find at his arrival in Canaan (Gen. 33: 14-15) 
he says he will lead on "to Ait-tei " (trans, "softly"), 
and then builds " tabernacles " {Szicc-oih) to his Mi-Kan-ah 
(trans, "cattle"), perhaps the cow-goddess Athor, and it 
seems that the Men-ah or " portion " which El-Kan-ah 
gives his family is much like the Egyptian word Mena 
(trans. " cattle"). Jehoah had "shut-up " {Sagar) cHann- 
ah as in the tower or Ziggur-at, that is, she was consecrated 
to the I-Chal or " temple ", hence was a Chell-ah or "bride" 
of the temple (Latin CcbI-us^ ; but at this particular I-Chal 
the Cohen was one Ael-i, who had lascivious sons ( i Sam. 
2 : 22), in the teeth of which fact cHann-ah went there to 
pray Jehoah to give her "seed of men " {Zar-aa Ae-Nosh- 
ini), and laid her " complaint " {Shich) before Jehoah, but her 
inaudible tone caused Aeli to "strike" {Samer) her mouth, 
saying she was Shechor-ah (trans, "drunken"). She 
seems to have found cHen or " grace ", however, and went 
the woman to Dorech-ah, which " way " was that of Ra- 
cHel (Gen. 31: 35), and cHann-ah ate, &c., and arose the 
next morning, worshipped, and they went home. After 
the boy was Gem-El-ah or "weaned", she Sha-Aul (trans, 
"granted") him to Jehoah. Then she sang, closing with 
the word Me-Siach, as if this was Shemu-El, but it is rather 
a song of some " holy-one " (v. 9) or cHes-Id or Hesiod 
(Egyp. cHes, " a bard " or " poet "), though Shemu-El was 
a cHoz-ah or " seer." 

Shemu-El's Mei-Ail or "robe" (Heracles Melampyges) 
explains the Aail Mellua-im (trans. " ram of consecration ", 
Ex. 29: 26), perhaps " black" sheep to the infernal deity; 
the Atak (trans. " covered ", i Sam. 28 : 14) being the 



Il6 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

Hathor or " fate "-god, the Greek Ate, the Latin " Discor- 
dia" {Dis-Sich-Aor-Dia) or ** dark-Nile-goddess ", for the 
month At-yr is that in which the Nile flood is full for weal 
or woe; while Shemu-El is the Sam or high-priest of 
funeral-rites, and the rubric to the ** Lament of Isis and 
Nepthys " requires the worshipper to let no one see or hear 
it save the Kar cHeb or priest of eulogies and the Sem, and 
so Aeli or Sem, not ** hearing", "struck" {Same?-) cHan- 
nah. Sameol ("left" or "left-hand") seems to have had a 
sinister significance, and the left hand pillar before the 
temple was called Bo-Az as it implies the withdrawal {Boa) 
of Az (" strength ", " tree ", " goat "). For Shemu-El was 
a "priest of Ne-Amen'' (trans, "faithful"), to whom 
^ohosih. hniXt Beth-Ne- Amen {trsins. "sure-house") so that 
he could walk before his Me-Shich all his days ( i Sam. 2 : 
35); hence we further read (3: 20) that all Israel knew 
that Ne-Amen (trans. " established ") Shemu-El " to Nabie 
to Jelioah", thus connecting the "ear "-god Nub-ti with 
Amen and both with Jehoah and Me-Siach ; Sha-Aul or 
She-Aol being the Me-Shech (10: i ), and, as the " granted" 
{Sha-Aul, I : 28) to Jhoah, Sha-Aul and Shemu-El are also 
identified with each other. Parts of the narrative (espe- 
cially chapters 8, 12, 15) seem injected by later hands as 
an attack by the hierarchy on dynastic rule ; the last of 
these (15:) telling of the order to Sha-Aul to "utterly- 
destroy" {Caram-eth-aK) the "sinners" {Cheta-im) of the 
A-Malek (15: 15), not "Amalekites" ; and Agag seems the 
" giant " (Gr. Gigans), as " from Aalem, men of the Shem" 
(Gen. 6: 4); but as Shel-Ag is "snow" and Ag-El is 
"dew " perhaps "frost", and as Agag comes "delicately" 
or "from Adan-eth " {Ma-Adann-etK), which implies the 
slain year-god {Adin, "time", Dan. 7: 25). the story may 
be one in which the cold attacks the " grape " {A -Neb) 
and the "vineyard" (Giraw), and thus Shemu-El is re- 
lieved of his infamy as to the Shesh-Aph of Agag before 
Jehoah (comp. Num. 24: 7). Shemu-El easily connects 



LOCAL NAMES OF GOD AND GODDESS. II7 

with I-Shema-El or " Ishmael ", who may be Ish-Mei-Ail 
or ** robed man ", for Ishmael as Per-ae (trans. ** wild-ass "), 
would seem the " winter " (Egj^p. Per) or the Ma- Debar 
Paran, when Egypt is again dry and seed time has arrived; 
and as his successor, when I-Shema-El or Shemu-El dies 
(i Sam. 25 : i), David goes to Madebar Paran. Shem-Esh, 
the Hebrew word generally used for the Sun, which comes 
and goes with the Nile, is perhaps " sun-light ", and the with- 
drawal of the ^^>% ("light", ''breath", ''fire") may have 
left us Shem as the winter or night Sun, and the burial of 
Shemu-El at the Ra-Math supports this, for indisputably 
Ra was a name of the Sun both on the Euphrates and the 
Nile, and yet we may not be certain that Amen-Ra of 
Theban Egypt was meant for the Sun cult alone without 
reference to his son or messenger or angel or " cup-bearer " 
(Heb. Ma-Shek-ah), the Sichor or Pa-Sach or Me-Siach 
The account of Shemu-El's career as " seer " (^cHoz-aK) or 
" bard " is of little value save as it renders him the Sem-u 
or "conspirator" against Sha-Aul as Sem-u against Osiri, 
though Plutarch calls Typhon SmJ^ 

Gid-Aou or Jeru-Ba-Aal seems the name of Deity at 
Shechem at one time, and the same perhaps as Jere-Boam, 
who came out of Egypt, built Shechem (i K. 12: 25), and 
was probably the "ear "-god Nub-ti or his son, that is 
Sheth ; hence much the same as Shemu-El at Bethel, Sha- 
Aul at Gibe-ah, &c. Apher-ah, which seems to have been the 
home or shrine of Gid-Aon, means a heifer-calf ; such as 
Jereboam set up, they said, at Bethel and Dan ; and per- 
haps the people were called Ephera-im because of this 
calf symbol. But Apher-ah is mentioned in connection 
(Judges 6: 11: 8: 32)with"Aabi the Ae-Zer-i" (trans. 
"Abiezer"), which words suggest the Abai and its other 
name Zer-ak or Azer-ach, whose crimson torrent suits well 
the Edemon-i or " daemon" cult of Sheth or Esav. At the 
time Gid-Aon arose, Israel was in dens, caves, &c. (6: 2), 
which identifies Gid-Aon with Sha-Aul (i Sam. 13 : 6) ; and 



Il8 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

Midian, utterly exterminated by Mosheh (Num. 31:), was 
in possession of the country. Gid-Aon was found in Gath 
(trans, "wine-press"), and was told he was a Gibbor cHail 
or mighty "general" (Bgyp. c/fauf), and in turn, seeing 
that it was Malach Jehoah (6 : 22), Gid-Aon said " Aah-ah 
Adon-ai Jehoah " &c ; the scene being somewhat similar to 
that where Ahieh (trans. "lam") appeared to Mosheh. 
The aif air, however, would seem a mere religious illustration 
if we notice what follows (6 : 25-32), for Gid-Aon is told to 
throw down the altar his father had built to Ba-Aal, for his 
father was in " the city ", and not in a den or cave, and was 
of the orthodox faith of the day. Gid-Aon, however, 
throws down the altar, and becomes himself Ba-Aal or Jeru- 
Ba-Aal, which is an attempt to show that the Nile- or Jeor- 
Ba-Aal superceded the older and ruder phase or form of 
Deity, such as the terrible Bes, perhaps also called Midian 
or Je-Thero or Pele-Sheth. Gid-Aon then encamps at 
cHarod, and in due course "discomfits" {^cHarad) Midian 
(8: 22), for he is the Egyptian Cher-at or divine-" child "^ 
and the Chaldean Kurad or "warrior." His exploit is that 
of Joshua and Sha-Aul and Jonathan and David over Pele- 
Sheth, of Je-Pethach over Ammon, of Hor-os over Sheth. 
of Zeus over the Titans, Saint George over the Dragon, 
Baal-Roph-on over Chimsera, Jesus over Death, &c., &c. 
Gid-Aon would not have been the Nile or Jeor without 
having many wives and "seventy " {Sheba-mi) sons (8: 30) 
or canals, but "of his body begotten" {li-Zei lerech-d), or 
"going-out of his thigh", suggests that Jakob's wound in 
his " thigh " was emasculation, for he "strove" {Sar-eth) with 
God, and Sari-Is (Heb. "eunuch") reminds us of the 
mutilated Osir-is. That Gid-Aon had a Pelegesh is not 
reproved, and belongs to the story of Abi-Melech, but the 
Ephod or idol he made became a "snare" {Mo-Kesh), and 
we may have here the "water-bow " or some symbol of the 
"crescent" {Sahar-on) -Moon, though "earrings" {Nez- 
Em-i) are mentioned so often that one thinks, not of Azen 



LOCAL NAMES OF GOD AND GODDESS. II9 

("ear"), but of the Thebes (Egyp. iV^^r) -mother, wife of 
Amen, called Mu-t, and represented by the "vulture" 
(Heb. Ra-cham) or "eagle" {Nezir) ; for all the deities had 
faults save Jehoah. Jer-ah, however, was the " Moon", and 
Jaar is rendered "forest", and one must not be certain as 
to Jeru-Ba-Aal and Jere-Boam being the Jeor-god ; while 
Gid or Ged is "goat", "troop", "fortune" (Isaiah 65: 17), 
and Aon is perhaps "duration", the Greek Aeon. 

"Elijah" is properly Aeli-Jahu or -lahu ; the "God- 
Jahu " or lahu ; which latter might seem the Egyptian Aok 
("Moon"), which is in Pha-Ra-Aoh, " the-Sun-Moon " ; * 
but other suggestions as to this name are made herein ; yet 
laoh or lehoah would probably be the form in Hebrew of 
the Egyptian Aoh ; and we have there Chonsu-Aoh, son of 
Amen, besides " Thoth " or Ta-cHut-Aoh. It seems 
hardly probable that Ezra and Nechem-Iah introduced the 
name, but it is curious that "Darius" or Hystaspes is in 
both Persian and Hebraic " Dare-Yavahu", and he was the 
real founder of the Medo-Persian empire, as well as a friend 
of the Yehud-i or " Jews." The character of Elijah is cer- 
tainly quite the ideal of Jehoah ; and it is probable that the 
Ezraites gave him the name on that account ; for he is 
known to Suetonius and Tacitus as Carmelus, in which we 
trace the cHuram of Tyre as cHuram-El ; though Carem- 
El or "vineyard" (^Carem)-Oo6. is also probable. But he 
is called Ti-Shib-i (trans. " sojourner"), and Shib or Sheb 
with its variants is a word of many meanings ; and yet 
perhaps it came to be considered as "returner" when ap- 
plied to Eli-Jahu, even if that was not its original meaning ; 
though as against Eli-Shea he was the " seated ", or " old " 
(^Sheb)-%o^, as Seb was made father of Osiri ; but in Egyp- 
tian U-Sheb-tiu meant "to tell" or "answer", and was the 
name of a wooden image of the deceased deposited with 

* In Egypt the Sun and Moon were called the eyes of Horus or 
cHor, and he was said by some to have been the first human king or 
Pa-Ra-Aoh. 



I20 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

the body, inscribed with his name and virtues, and with a 
small hoe and bag of seed as if to serve the wants of the 
dead in the garden of Aalu or Aaru or Aachen, and the 
beard attached to its chin was long, and signified the 
"return" of the soul to Osiri or deity from whom it 
emanated; and so the Bir Azz-im (i Sara. 19: 13, 16) or 
"grave wood ", not " pillar of goats ", put with the teraphim 
by Mi-Chal. Another name of Elijah was Aish Ba-Aal 
Sa-Aar (trans, "hairy man"), which identifies him with 
Esav, who came forth E-Demon-i (trans, "red"), like an 
Adder-eth Sa-Aar (trans, "mantle hairy") ; that is, as in 
the month Athor* is the "flood" (Egyp. Sa^ of the "Nile" 
or Aar wherefore Elijah's " mantle " or Adder-eth ; while 
a Ba-Aal (Egyp. "soul-blessed") is perhaps the Hebrew 
Bel or Ma-Bul (trans, "flood"; Coptic Bol, "out-side"); 
and so, as Edemoni Sa-Aar is the "red flood-Nile ", we have 
its equivalent in Timin-ath Seir-ah where Jehoshua was 
buried, for he is the son of Nun which means sea in Egyp- 
tian ; but this Sa-Aar or Seir seems to have been typified 
by a " goat ", emblem of productiveness, and as such had 
its fanes in Canaan (2 Chr. 11: 15; Lev. 17: 7), as the 
classics had Pan, the Egyptian Pa-Un or Pa-Uon, "the 
manifestation " of the Nile (Heb. Pan-i or Pha7i-i, " face " 
or " before "), the theo-phany of the Nile, or Un-Nepher 
("manifest-good ") as the Egyptians called Osiri ; whence 
Esav was Penu-El to Jakob (Gen. 33 : 10), perhaps with 
the implied sense of the " af ore-god " whom Jakob is to 
supplant, as Pan nurses Bacchus, and as the ruddy inunda- 
tion precedes seed-time. The Greek These-os, son of the 
"goat" {ySgeos), seems in name like the Theaish (trans, 
"he-goat") Jakob sent Esav (Gen. 32: 14), while his 
death at Scyr-os (Sechar-os) reminds one of that of Elijah, 
as These-os was taken to a high place or pinnacle to be 

*The Egyptian **D" would be represented by "T" or "Th"; 
hence their "Athor" would be "Adar" in Hebrew; and so Athor 
and the Syrian Dir-Ceto, both fish-goddesses, were the same. 



LOCAL NAMES OF GOD AND GODDESS. 121 

shown wide dominions, and cast down from there (2 K. 2 : 
16 ; Mat. 3 : 5-6), and this at the instigation of Mene- 
Sethe-os; though Elijah's fiery death rather resembles the 
funeral pyre of Heracles, as a Sun-set, or as Egypt covered 
by the red Sa or Sati. 

Elijah first appears, full grown, in the mysterious Gile- 
Ad, perhaps the " revealed-hand." His first work is as the 
evil Ne-Sether-eth (trans. " hide-thyself ", i K. 17: 3), 
"hidden" in the Nachal Cher-ith or " Nile cut-off", after 
predicting drouth ; but the Nachal " became dry ", not 
necessarily ** dried up " ; yet while there the Arob-im 
brought him food in morning and in Aareb (trans. " even- 
ing"), which Arob-im the imitator John was justified in 
mistaking for "locusts" (^Aareb-eK) or even "flies" (the 
Aar-ob)y as in Egypt (Ex. 10 : 4 ; 8 : 21), and in Egyptian 
Ab is a " fly " and Aab is an " offering ", perhaps to the 
Aor or Nile, while the "scarabeus" there, usually cHepher, 
and representing metamorphosis, was also Ab or Aph. 
And it was after he had murdered the Ba-Aal-im that 
Elijah told Acheab there was the voice of '' \i\i^ Amon oi 
the Gesh-em " (trans. " abundance of the rain ") or " the 
true flood " ; further illustrating this as himself when he 
Temo-Ded or Te- Mo-Ded {ir3.ns. " stretched-himself " ; comp. 
Gehar, 2 K. 4 : 35, or Jeor) on the dead child (i K. 17 : 21), 
praying its soul might Ti-Shub into it again, though the 
play on Temo-Ded or " polluted-love " and Temo-Ded or 
"pure-love" and Mo-Ded or "water of love" shows the 
zealous Jehovist or the cynical scribe. The Alemen-ah of 
Zare-Peth-ah or Zar-Epath-ah (Sar-Epta, Luke 4 : 26) 
seems rather the Demeter or Cer-es form of the allegory 
than that of the widowed As or Isis, or the Chaldean 
I-Shetar, or the Tyrian widow Did-o or El-Issa, or the 
Phrygian Kyb-Ele and her lover Atys, and shows western 
infusion, as does the shrine Beth Lech-Em or " house of the 
wandering-mother ", a form of Hagar, Na-Omi, &c. Elijah 
could restore the dead and draw fire from Heaven on the pla- 



122 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

toons sent to arrest him, but he fled from the queen Ai-Zebel> 
perhaps a Sibyl, and wife of the noble Acheab ( i K. 20 : 32- 
34). He went to Beer-Sheb-Aa, thence into the Ma-Debar, 
where he slept under a Ro-Tem Acheth (or A-cHad, v, 5), 
which we suspect to be the Ro (Egyp. "eye") "single" 
{Ackad) which is the Uta (Heb. Hud-ah? or "Judah"?) 
that the hieroglyphs use for Osiri, as Tem or T-Ma is the 
" true " or " truth," whence Thumm-im ; and the Lachai 
Ro-i over Hagar and her son, at the same place, or near by, 
seems the " eyes " which watched over the " wanderers " 
{Lacha-i), perhaps the Sun and Moon of the child-god 
Horns. Malach Jehoah fed him twice, after which he was 
" an hungered " for forty days. At cHoreb, " a mountain 
of the Elohim ", he goes into a cave, but Debar- Jehoah 
came to him, and there was a remarkable meeting on the 
Mosheh order, during which, amidst storm and earthquake 
and fire, was a Kol Dammah or " voice still ", or "voice of 
blood ", Kain's Kol Dam (Gen. 4 : 10), the A-Kel Dama of 
Iscariot ; for, while this may allude to the guilty Elijah, it 
seems more probable that the bloody program of verse 17 is 
meant, but at least the end of his career is announced (v. 
16). The design of this scene seems to have been under- 
stood as a picture of the " day of judgment", whence "the 
day of Jehoah is Kerob" (Joel 2:1; Zeph. i: 7, &c.) or 
" near " or " at hand ", as John and Jesus have it ; and this 
in the Egyptian burial ceremonies occurred first at the sa- 
cred lake, where the Khar-Heb or " priest of eulogies " 
might have his purpose reversed if witnesses came forward 
and the dead were adjudged guilty ; hence perhaps cHoreb, 
Kerob, and even Akar-Ab (trans. " scorpion "), and hence 
Gael ha Dam (2 Sam. 14: 6, 11) or "avenger of blood" 
should perhaps be "revealer" {Gal or Gal-ah), 

Elijah's last exploits were in opposition to Ba-Aal Zebub, 
god of Aekeron or Acheron. This name of Deity has been 
generally accepted as meaning "god of flies" on account 
of an Arab word for that insect ; but the " fly " (Egyp. Ab 



LOCAL NAMES OF GOD AND GODDESS. 1 23 

or Aph) must have been the sacred Sachar-Ab or " scara- 
baeus ", called by the Egyptians cHepher, and often placed 
in figure on the breast of the dead, as also on the holy veil 
of the temple, and on the cofl5n-lid ; and that the Hebrews 
used this emblem appears from the Chephor-eth (trans, 
"mercy-seat") or "lid" of the Aar-on. But, as god of 
Acheron, the Jews of Jesus's time called Ba-Aal Zeb-Ub 
chief of demons, while the deity cHepher in Egypt seems a 
type of the resurrection. Howbeit, Elijah calls down fire 
on the soldiers sent to arrest him. His ascension to Heaven, 
or assassination by Eli-Ishaa, is elsewhere herein com- 
mented upon. 

"El-Isha ", or properly Eli-Shaa or Eli-Ishaa, seems the 
" lif ted-up " (Issea)-god ; perhaps the " risen" ; though there 
might be other meanings, but the Greek Zeus is perhaps 
the same word. The "twelve" {Shena-im Ae-Sar) yoke, 
and he " in Shena-im Ae-Sar " or " twelfth ", seems a play 
on the " year " (^Shen-ah)-god or " sleep " {She?i-aJi)-go6., who 
is aroused, and either interpretation would fit Pa-Shen ("the 
lotus") -god of Egypt, cHar pa-Cher-at, and which flower 
was the emblem of new life in Egypt ; and the " double- 
portion " (^Pa-Shena-im) of his Ruach, which Eli-Shaa asked 
of Elijah, alludes to this sense of revivification or renewing 
himself as the year does, even by destroying the old, as 
Eli-Shaa possibly appears to have done to Elijah. 

The first miracle of Eli-Shaa is to " heal " {Raph) the 
water at Jericho, which Ma-Shachal-atk (trans. " mis- 
carried "), but E-Shechol is a " cluster " of grapes, and we 
suspect this water had the effect of wine, and Eli-Shaa 
called for Zelach-ah cHad-Ash-ah (trans, "new cruse"), 
perhaps "water-pots to the brim" (John 2:7) as at Cana, 
though Zel-ach is the usual " came-mightily " of the Ruach. 

The cure of the Shun-Am-ith's son is notable as an allu- 
sion to cHar pa-Cher-at; the "cHarad-ath with all this 
cHarad-ah " or "careful for us with all this care" (2 K. 
4* 13) giving even the name, as Shun-Em or "lotus- 



124 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

mother " seems to do to "tlie lotus" {Bgyp. Pa-Sken) on 
which he is usually depicted as sitting, with his hand to 
his lips, and which latter action, meant to express the si- 
lence that a child should observe, or perhaps mystery, makes 
a small figure such as the hieroglyph appear as if he was 
pointing to his "head" (4: 19); but the (Luke 7: 15) 
seems to understand the " sneeze " (Zorer) of the child as 
" began to speak ", while Nair-n would seem to indicate 
that the Luke author knew that his story was that of the 
Naar or " boy "-god, son of Isa or Isis after the death of 
Osiri; and the "stretched" (Ge-I/ar) seems an allusion to 
the reviving Jeor or Nile, or perhaps Har (Egyp. cl/er) or 
*'appearance-of-God." But that Eli-Shaa put all out save 
"them Shen-i'^ (trans, "twain") seems followed by the 
Matthew (9 : 25) in the case of the daughter of Jair-us, but 
partly corrected in both the Mark and the Luke, yet all 
three have Jesus say she "sleeps", and Shen-ah is " sleep." 




The divine child cHar pa Cherat (Gr. ' ' Harpocrates ") or Ahi, with the crook and 
scourge in one hand, wearing the double crown, and seated on ' * the Lotus ' ' 
or Pa Sheen. 



LOCAL NAMES OF GOD AND GODDESS. 1 25 

Eli-Shaa also anticipates Jesus bj'' feeding (2 K. 4: 42-44) 
many with a scant fare, but the John (5: 3), whose Greek 
author seems to think this a Pass-over (v. 4), is the only 
one who places this miracle on a mountain, as if appreciat- 
ing Eli-Shaa's Carmel (trans. " fresh-ears-of-corn"), and even 
the man or lad who brought the food ; and Eli-Shaa cured 
a whole army of blind men at one time (2 K. 6: 8-23); 
and, though he perhaps did not walk on water, yet he could 
(2 : 14) part the river with his mantle, and (6: 1-7) could 
make iron swim ; in which last case the one whose axe- 
head fell cried " Aahah Adonai ! " followed by " and he 
She-Aol " ; queer words, which may be " and he begged ", 
but not " for it was borrowed ", and She-Aol or Hades may 
refer to Eli-Shaa's power. He also saved a widow from 
destitution, and rendered wholesome poisoned pottage. 
The cure of the "leper" {Zor-aa) Na-Aman was by pre- 
scribing that he dip in Joredan, and the curious remark as 
to him when cured, that he went from him (5: 19) "and 
Chibar-ath Arez'' maybe "a glorious land", but "a little 
way " is inadmissible, and this would imply that El-Ishaa 
as the Nile had bathed the Thebaid (No-Amen) in its 
waters, and made of it a glorious land when purged of its 
Zer-aa or enemy. And this reminds us that he seems as 
the red water of Edom or E-Tam which Osiri or Eli-Shaa 
canalled or trenched (3 : 16), and which seemed as the 
blood of Malach-im or "kings" or "angels", perhaps 
"giants", as the " trenches" were Gebi-im, and to which a 
Bekir or "eldest-son" ("first-born") was annually sacri- 
ficed. But this seems also represented by Eli-Shaa's eleva- 
tion of Je-Hua or "Jehu" to the crown, and, as son of 
Jeho-Shephat the son of Nim-Ish-i (Ni-Mesha?), le-Hua 
possibly serves as the returner Eli-Jahu, since he comes 
from Ra-Moth of Gilead in a swift chariot, to execute the 
words of Eli-Jahu the "returner" (9: 36) against the 
"Sibyl" or Ai-Zebel, and also destroys the Ba-Aal-im (10: 
18-28) to the last man ; but, then, worshipped the god Jere- 



126 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

Boam or the Apis, or the heifer-image, since to the hierarchy 
at Jerusalem nought good could come out of Samaria ; but 
we may little doubt that Je-Hua and Eli-Jahu were meant 
to be the same crimson flood which destroys the seventy 
sons or canals of A-cHeab (Arabic Kib-ti or " E-Gyp-t ")» 
for his companions (9 : 12) call Je-Hua Sheker (trans, "it 
is false"), that is, the Shichor. 

Perhaps the most notable account of El-Ishaa, however, 
especially as it has been adapted in the John Gospel, is that 
(2 K. 8 : 7-15) when at Dam-Ma-Shek, to " anoint " {^Ma- 
Shach-etha) or "corrupt", "destroy", cHaza-El king over 
Syria, and it is curious that the usual word for " destroy" 
or " corrupt" is used in this line and Thi-Me-Shech in the 
next line (i K. 19 : 15-16), but this distinction seems clear 
to the author of the John (11 : 39) as he uses the word 
"stinketh"in the sense no doubt of "corruption". At 
Dam-Ma-Shek, Eli-Shaa tells cHaza-El that Ben Ha-Dad 
will " not live life" or "not live long",* and cHaza-El is 
ashamed that his purpose is penetrated, but Eli-Shaa weeps 
because cHaza-El is to put the Ma-Chebar (trans, "thick- 
cloth ") or " napkin " over the face of Ben-ha-Dad ; and so 
Jesus or El-Issea, the son of Ha-Dad or David, weeps when 
he comes to the grave of cHaza-El or El-cHazar-us, the 
cHaza or " sleep", or " vision "-god ; and the John (11 : 47- 
53) even gives the opinion of Caiph-as somewhat that of 
El-Ishea (2 K. 8 : 12-13). Another version is that (Gen. 
15 : 2) where Abram grieves, seeing that he goes Aari-Iri 
(trans. " childless") or "accursed", and the "son of the 
cup-bearer " {Ben-Me-Shek) is " of his house, the red Ma- 
Shek, Eli-Ae-Zer ", but the text seems corrupt or enigmatic, 
and yet El-Iezer or L-Azar-us seems a sinister name, per- 
haps as that of the " detained-god ". 

The stain on the name of Eli-Shaa (2 K. 2 : 23-24) is 

* The English versions omit' ' not ", and make Eli-Shaa speak falsely. 
It is not Eli-Shaa who is " ashamed " {Bosh), but cHaza-El. who sees 
that his purpose is understood. 



LOCAL NAMES OF GOD AND GODDESS. I27 

where some little children call him Kere-ach (trans. " bald- 
head") as he was going up to Beth-El, whereupon two 
Dubb-im came and devoured forty-two of them. The mean- 
ing of Kere-ach is not clear, but the Dubb-im are probably 
that of the ferocious beast Aim who devours the guilty in 
Amen-ti, and which rather seems a hippopotamus ; while the 
forty -two devoured seem as the forty-two assessors in Amen- 
ti, perhaps called (2 K. 10: 14) the Bir of the house of 
Akad, as forty-two are there slain, though A-Kad is " east " 
and Amen-ti is Egyptian for ** west ", but perhaps there 
was reason for the hidden satire ; and it is certain that the 
Egyptian priests are depicted with shorn heads. If, how- 
ever, this was a real incident, and the other was also fact 
where he showed compassion on the Syrian army sent to 
capture him (6 : 14-23), a balance will have to be struck ; but 
the latter story, of an army struck with *' blindness " 
{Sanever-im) , may have been used to color the story of 
Senacherib's curious reverse, for the prophet leshaa-Jahu 
("Isaiah") who figures there bears practically the same 
name as El-Ishaa, allowing that El and Jahu are the same. 

No claim is advanced that Eli-Shaa arose from the dead ; 
but his bones gave life to a man who had been dead (13 : 
20-21). 

The books of Chronicles, written perhaps a short while 
before Christ, make no mention of El-Ishea, and only once 
notices Eli- Jahu (2 Chr. 21 : 12-15); ^.nd this though the 
account of them embraces in the Kings the greater parts of 
six chapters ; and while there seems no motive for omitting 
the rebellion of Abshalom save as it may have reflected on 
David, yet the fact that the shrine at Carmel was a rival of 
that at Jerusalem perhaps excuses the Chronicler. Eli-Jahu 
is noticed in two or three of the prophetic books, and re- 
appears in the New Testament, perhaps because the Gal- 
ileans venerated Carmel ; John the Baptist making himself 
a type of the old hairy god. But the noble El-Ishea, save 
Jonathan the most perfect figure drawn in Hebrew litera- 



128 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

ture, receives no recognition apart from the original narra- 
tion except once (Luke 4:7), though the miracles of Jesus 
are evidently imitative of the Charash or " plow-man " 
("carpenter"). The furious Eli-Jah, the archetype of 
religious zeal and intolerance, is better adapted to the pur- 
poses of a barbarous and narrow ecclesiasticism. Even 
among the miserable masses it will be found that a benefi- 
cent deity is local, while an avenging or judgment-god is 
demanded by all who assign their sufferings to others, or 
who reprobate the opinions of others. Neither Eli-Jahu 
nor El-Ishea is given a genealogy, save that the father of 
the latter is mentioned, and this when genealogy is the bed- 
rock of Jhoavism (Ezra 2 : 62 ; Nehe. 7 : 64) ; but as Seb 
(Ti-Shub) was father of Osiri, and Eli-Jah may have name 
thus, we are to suppose there was no one anterior to him. 

Jo-Seph means *' increase" and Jeor-Seph perhaps im- 
plies the abundant Nile. He seems to have been the son 
of Reuben (Gen. 30: 14-24), whose Doda-im (trans, "man- 
drakes"), or "love-gifts", were "hired" {Sechar) by Ra- 
cHel when her husband failed her ; and for this Reuben 
forfeited his birthright as firstborn (Gen. 49 : 3), though 
some admirer of Rachel transferred this treason to Baal-ah 
(35: 22), but the remark of the Chronicler (i Chr. 5 : i) is 
ambiguous; and so Reuben properly saved Joseph's life 
(Gen. 37 : 21) when in danger from his slandered brothers. 
These call him " Ba-Aal the cHelom-oth the Laz-ah ", all 
of which is rendered " this dreamer " ; but cHelom-oth is 
" dreamers " and Liz-ah is " interpreter " or " envoy ", while 
Ba-Aal is a divine title ; so that we have here Joseph in the 
sense of the Greek Hermes or the Egyptian A-Nub-is or of 
Thoth; a character he sustains throughout. His other 
names were (41 : 45) Zaphen-ath Phane-ach and Aber-ech 
(v. 43), which former is applied to the "hid " {Zeph-en-ah) 
Mosheh, and may mean the " hidden-face " unless Phane- 
ach be Pa-Anach (Egyp. " the life ") as a deity entitled to 
carry the " life " (^Anch)-'' sign " called Tau or Tav ; hence, 



LOCAL NAME OF GOD AND GODDESS. I 29 

one who knew the " secrets of life " ; while A-Ber-ech is the 
Hebrew Bar-uch or " blessed ", the Egyptian worthy to 
cross in the Bari or sacred boat, the Greek Abrax-os of 
later times (Mark 14: 61-62). Joseph's " coat-of -many- 
colors" {Chefon-eth Passi-ini) suggests the variegate robe 
in which is depicted the goddess Athor or "Isis" (Egyp. 
Pa-Asi, ** the Isis"), and we find it worn hy the daughter 
of David, the ravished Tamar. The Begad which Po- 
tiphar's wife tore from Joseph may imply that he was act- 
ing " treacherously ", for so the word is sometimes ren- 
dered (Judges 9 : 23 ; i Sam. 14: 33). The name of his 
wife A-San-ath implies that he as masculine was A-San 
or Pa-Shen (" the lotos") -god, as does his riding in the 
Ma-Shen-ah chariot. The sons Ma-Nashshah (not " Ma- 
Nasseh ") and Ephera-im seem to represent the two phases 
of A-Nub-is, since Anash is Egyptian for " wolf", or the 
evil phase of the embalmer god of the fox-head, w^ho was 
director of the "two ways" (the hieroglyphic Af), and his 
" right way " or phase was Ap-cHar-u or Ep-Hera, which 
names of A- Nub the usher-god is shown when Joseph takes 
his two sons to Jakob (Gen. 48 : 13-20), who does not 
reverse the manner in which Joseph or A-Nub is holding 
the youths, but Jakob Sich-ul (*' wise") his hands, putting 
the ** left" (Shame-01) on Ma-Nashshah, as that handholds 
the " ear-" or Sha-staff, called Uaz or Sem ; and he places 
the I-Amin (Heb. "right") hand on Epheraim, as in that 
is held the Tav or " life " (Egyp. AnacK) symbol ; but the 
author of Jakob's swan-song does not make him discriminate 
(49 : 27), and the Bene-Iamin are there called a Zeeb (Egyp. 
Sabu^ " fox " ; the Hebrew Shu-at)^ and seems to identify 
the concept with Anubis generally ; for the Canaanites of 
the coast were often pirates, no doubt, and hence son of the 
" sea " {lam) and son of the " ship " {Aent) were perhaps 
a proper name of the wolf-god Anub, the Ba-Aal Zeb-ub of 
Acheron, on which name there seems (Gen. 35 : 18) a play 
on " ships " and the " sea ". In this poem Joseph is said 



I30 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

to be Nezir of his brethren (v. 26), and this is the Nezir 
which Shimshon is called, not ** Nazarite ", and which 
seems here some protector. 

Tales of obscure youths rising to be the vizier of mon- 
archs seem popular in the literature of the Orient. That 
of Daniel is a version of that of Joseph ; Seph-at and Dan 
both meaning " judge ; " both men coming out of a pit or 
den ; both were dreamers and interpreters of dreams ; both 
being wiser than the native cHar-Thumm-im (Gen. 41 : 8 ; 
Dan. 1 : 20) ; both had the Ruach of the holy gods (Gen. 
41 : 38 ; Dan. 4 : 8) ; both became great, &c. Mordecai is 
from the same repertoire. Josephus (Antiq. 12:4) gives 
a long account of a Joseph, a Jew, who played a similar 
part at the court of Alexandria under one of the Ptolemy 
dynasty, about B. C. 247-222, and who, after his great suc- 
cess, retired to a place just east of the Jordan to enjoy his 
gains, and probably this was the original of the name, and 
possibly of the story, for what is called the " historic parts 
of the Hebrew Scriptures " probably do not date before that 
time ; and yet little reliance can be placed on Josephus. 

The Egyptians had a deity called Sapti, supposed to be 
Osiri before his mutilation, and adored chiefly in their 
Arab possessions, where he was called " lord of the East ", 
and it is curious that he is also called " noblest of the 
spirits of On ", whence was Joseph's wife. 

Jeho-Shua or "Joshua" is also called Ho-Sea. He is 
called son of Nun, which in Hebrew means a *' fish ", in 
Egyptian means the "sea", "waters"; while on the Eu- 
phrates Nin was the " fish "-god. Jeho-Shua is first found 
fighting at Reph-Id-im, or " healing-hands ", while Mosh- 
eh's lad-im were held " steady " {Amen-ah) or " true ", as 
if there was fear he would be false. Jeho-Shua and Caleb, 
perhaps names of the same personage, as the " dog " 
(Ca/^3)-head Anubis was the conductor of souls, were the 
only two of the 600,000 armed men who fled from Egypt 
who passed-over into Canaan. Jeho-Shua's massacres of 



LOCAL NAMES OF GOD AND GODDESS. I3I 

the Canaanites (Josh. lo : and 1 1 :) were ordered by Jehbah 
(Deut. 20 : 16-18), if they occurred (comp. Judges 2 : 1-5), 
but Ezra's doctrine of exclusiveness seems to us responsible 
for the hideous narration. Jeho-Shua, however, is ac- 
credited with the most remarkable miracle that any litera- 
ture records, since he made the Sun stand still for a whole 
day, though the " house of cHoron " (^Beth cHoroji) or 
" house of Acheron " was a suggestive place for the 
prodigy ; and yet Makkabeus defeated Saron and Nikanor 
at the same place without such an exhibition of superhuman 
power. He is probably alluded to as the Zer-Oa Natu-ah 
or " arm-outstretched ", or the Zire-Aah (trans. " hornet ") 
which were to go before Israel into Canaan (Ex. 6 : 6 ; 23 : 
28), but we would understand the ruddy A-Zer-ach which 
goes before prosperity in Egypt ; and his burial at Tim- 
Un-ath Ser-ah seems to support this view, since we take 
Tam-Un or Dam-Un as the theophany of the Nile, and as 
the place was in the mysterious Har Ephera-im, and con- 
nects him with Shimshon (Judges 14: i, &c.), whom we 
may take as the flood-Nile. As no private crimes are as- 
signed to Jeho-Shua it is probable his shrines under any 
identifying name disappeared early. 

In Egypt there was a famous name of Deity which may 
have suggested that of Jeho-Shua. This was Shua, whom 
some identify with Heracles, and others say was the " light " 
as distinguished from the Sun. The inscriptions say " his 
substance was the substance of the Sun " ; his nutriment, 
first-born, selected before his birth, and without a mother ; 
" divine substance, self-created ^' ; and he is said to be 
"light", one of his names being Aa-Aor (Aor being in 
Hebrew both the "light" and the "Nile"); and he re- 
strains the fury of the goddess Aor-t, a name of the fierce 
Sechat, while he himself is called cHar-Sech-t, rendered 
"God in the divine-barge", though Sech-at was rather a 
sea vessel, and has a sinister meaning ; but Shu wears the 
cHek or lion-phallus, and is thus Hapi or the Nile-flood, 



132 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

and a combination of the classic Heracles and Apollo, as of 
cHon-Su, Horus, &c., so that we scarcely hesitate to 
identify Jeho-Shua with him, for Shu is always " son of the 
Sun" {Shu-si-Ra), which pauses to help Jeho-Shua, but 
which as Si-se-Ra was fought against by the stars in their 
courses, and w^as covered by the Sam-ich or leopard-skin 
"rug" of the Heaven or Ja-Ael. 

" Aaron " is properly Aah-Aron or Aharon. The 
** master of mysteries " in the Egyptian Hades was called 
Aau, which office Aah-Aron seems to have held in the Ma- 
Debar or Silent-Land. But his burial at the *' mountain of 
the Elohim ", cHor-eb, seems to connect him with the Khor- 
Heb. or "priest of praises" of Egyptian worship, and at 
cHor-eb it was that Ahieh (Aau?) appeared to Mosheh, 
Aharon, however, is but little apart from Acheron, or the 
Eg3^ptian pilot of the Bari, whom they called cHar-on, or 
perhaps Aau-cHaron. His wife was Eli-Sheba. 

The cult of Aharon must have been in the way of that 
of Jehoah, since two of his sons are killed for heresy, and 
he is also found to have made an Ae-Gal Ma-Sach-ah or 
" calf molten ", which bull or image seems referred to by 
Per-och-eth of the Ma-Shek (Ex. 35 : 12), rendered "veil 
of the screen ", as Par is " bull." When Mosheh saw the 
people worshipping before this image, he broke the two 
tables of the law, and proceeded to destroy it ; and then 
(Ex. 32 : 25) occurs the curious passage, that Mosheh saw 
the people had "broken-loose" {Peru-Aa), him, "for 
Pharaoh (trans. * had-let-them-loose') of Aharon for a de- 
rision ", &c. ; but Peru-Aa is Egyptian for " great-house " 
or "court", and the sense seems the people had "paid- 
court ", " he for Pharaoh Aharon, to strong-name {Sheme- 
Az-ah) among Egyptians (Keme-i,) them "; that is, they 
had made the calf to strengthen themselves with the Keme-i 
before their purposed return to Egypt, and that Aharon 
was for Pharaoh ; and Dr. Birch, in a note to Wilkinson's 
" Ancient Egyptians ", says the name Pharaoh comes from 



LOCAL NAMES OF GOD AND GODDESS. 1 33 

Per-Aa, "great-house" or "court." It is strange that the 
two sons of Aharon, Nadab and Abi-Hua, who had seen 
(Ex. 24: 9-1 1 ) the god of Israel "eat and drink", should be 
killed (Lev. lo : 1-5) for using Esh-Zir-ah (trans, "fire 
strange "), which may reasonably be "fire of Oziri." From 
his other two sons, Eli-Aezer and I-Thamar, was said to 
have come a line of priests, and that of the former perhaps 
took the name of Zadok-ites or righteous-ones, and were 
perhaps the Sadduc-ees of the Roman period; and per- 
haps it was in behalf of this priestly family or caste that 
we have the quaint apparition of Melich-Zedek or " King"- 
Zedek, priest of God Aelei-On, to whom even Abram paid 
tithes ; this Aelei-On meaning in Egyptian the " Paradise- 
visible." 

Miri-Am is perhaps " speech" ( ^ war) -mother ; equiva- 
lent to Debor-ah, which means a Debir or " oracle " ; and 
while the Latin Mer-Cury seems from the Egyptian Mer- 
Cherat or " sea-child ", it may be from the Hebrew Amar- 
Cheroze or " word-herald ", though house of " the Merach- 
ak" (2 Sam. 15 : 17) at Jerusalem, which seems " the Mer- 
cury ", does not bear this out ; but " thy brother came 
with Mir-Am-ah" (trans. " subtilty ") or "soft-speech" 
(Gen. 27 : 35), as if Min-ervah was invisibly behind this 
Ulysses. That she was buried at Kad-Esh seems to con- 
nect her cult with that of the morning-star or " east-light " ; 
and the Kadesh-oth or " holy-women " perhaps took name 
from her shrine, as also perhaps the Kadesh-im or " sodom- 
ites"; though Kadesh-Kadesh-im-Beth was the "holy-of- 
holies." And that her shrine at Kadesh is called (Gen. 14 : 
7) Ain Mi-Shaph-at probably connects her with the virgin 
shrines of Mi-Zep-eh ; and Meri-Ab-ah in Arabia, capital of 
Sab-ae, may indicate the extent in that direction of this 
vestal or Sib-yl cult, which was quite famous at Mount 
Sipil-us near Smj^rna. It seems probable that the "sodom- 
ites " {Kadesk-im), originally " holy-ones ", who reversed the 
meaning of this word, were really priests who were sup- 



134 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

posed to abuse (i Sam. 2. 22) the Zaba-oth or "serving- 
women" ; that is, the sterile or "forsaken" {A-Zab) women 
who came to pray for children, and who (2 K. 23 : 7) sewed 
or "wove" {Arag-oth) in the Arac-an-um while waiting 
(Herod, i : 131, 199). These charges attest the aversion of 
the Jehoaists and the strength of this great cult even more 
than the abasement of Miri-Am by making her leprous for 
a week (Num. 12: 1-15), but "the people journeyed not 
till she was brought in again ". 

The three appearances of Tamar are as a sterile widow 
who deceived JeHudah, as a daughter of Ab-Shalom, and 
the ravished virgin daughter of David. As the two latter 
she reminds one of the chaste Ar-Tem-is of the Greeks. 
The Cheton-eth Passim torn from her by Amen-On is the 
same as Joseph's coat of colors, and it reminds one of the 
variegated robe of Isi-s, and of the many starred garment 
worn by Lach-Isis, that one of the Fates who wove the 
fortunes of men. The widow Tam-ar (Gen. 38 :) is per- 
haps from the Chaldean Tiam-at, the sea or abyss or chaos, 
or the Egyptian "the mother" or Ta-Mu or Mu-t, and it 
will be noted that no names of Tam-ar's parents are given ; 
and yet this leaves the second syllable of her name undis- 
posed of, unless we force Ar into Aur or Aor, the Nile, 
which we have refused in all such cases to do, and yet her 
first husband was Aer (trans. " Er "). Timen-Ath-ah (not 
" Timnah ") is, however, thrice mentioned, and we repeat 
the opinion that this word expresses the Tam-Un or Dam- 
Un which means the "red" or "perfected" (Heb. Tarn) 
flood of the Nile, when its " twin " ( Tarn) rivers are full. 
Barren, at the first, she crowns and veils and disguises, and 
" sat " (Te-Sheb) at the Pe-Thach of the " fountains" {Aenai- 
im) which on the way {Dorech) or manner of Timan-Ath- 
ah. Her cHaimi or " father-in-law " is to come ; the mighty 
le-Hud-ah, who here seems the great cHat or "white" 
Nile for which the blue-Nile must w^ait. He comes and is 
tempted ; and gives her a " pledge" {Aer-Eb-Oft), perhaps 



LOCAL NAMES OF GOD AND GODDESS. 1 35 

the Greek Ereb-us, as the fertilizing season " Night". She 
subtly makes a Boz (trans, "shame") of him, as Ruth 
plays her trick on Boaz ; and thus Jehudah or Judah is 
identified with the ugly giant Bes, as one might suppose 
from the name Je-Bus, who seems the Bez-oh Nephesh 
(trans, "man despiseth") to whom Jehoah talks (Isaiah 
49 : 9). The Tomyr-is who killed the fabulous Cyrus, and 
placed his head in a bloody sack, apparently the Sun-set, 
possibly shows that this divine name was widely spread. 
That it meant "palm-tree", or was applied to that plant, is 
also of interest, as the date-palm is one of the symbolic 
trees of the Hebrews and Egyptians, and the " palm-branch " 
(Egyp. Bai)y which denoted a year in Egyptian hiero- 
glyphics, and which was strewn at their funeral processions, 
is called Baia (trans, "branches") of Phoenikon when 
spread before Jesus (John 12: 13); so that Tamar must 
have signified fecundity, as the birth of her famous twins 
showed, since through her son Perez is made to descend 
David and Jesus ; but then they were also made to descend 
from Rachab and Ruth. It is curious, however, that both 
Zanah and Kadesh-ah are used as " harlot " in reference to 
Tamar, though perhaps the latter was applied only to 
women who attended at or in the temples, the Jewish Zaba- 
oth (Ex. 38 : 8). 

The stories of Naomi and Ruth, however, are so clear as 
to deser^^e particular notice. The author seems resolved to 
identify them, not only with Beth Lechem or Ephrat-ah, 
but with other stories of the great mother. Ru in Egyp- 
tian hieroglyphics is represented by a turned vase from 
which water is pouring, and thus connects with Ap-Haru, 
the " Nile drawn-out " ; while Naomi is the Num or upright 
vase which might be an "urn"or^r^« (trans, "ark"), and 
she is perhaps the feminine of that admirable concept of 
deity in upper Egypt called Kh-Num or K-Neph, of whom 
the Greeks made Ga-Nym-ede the "cup-bearer" (Heb. T^a- 
Shek-aK), though this was a close identification of him with 



136 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

the Nile as the waterer ; but in Egypt he was the soul of 
the universe, the Urgos or Creator, organizer, irrigator, &c., 
who was at Rome both Jupiter Pl-uvius and Num-a Pom- 
Phile-us, as both names may be derived from his great 
shrine of Philae at the first cataract ; yet Num in Hebrew 
is rendered *' slumber", but Eeli-Melech is perhaps the 
"blessed" (Egypt, ^a/?^) -artificer or workman, who was 
probably "in bliss" {Ba-Aal?) ; while Na-Omi, literally 
" pray-mother ", also seems feminine of No-Amon or Thebes, 
where she was called Mu-t, and the third person of the 
Amon triad there was A-Nouke (Greek Nike, "victory") 
or Ank-t, who bore a lance as did Athena or Pall-as. In 
Phoenician story Astra-Noema was wife of El-Melech, and 
also Noema was wife of Ulom (Elohim), and the Greeks 
called her Hera, while under the Greek form Eury-Nome 
she is wife of the serpent-god they called Oph-ion ; and Ru- 
ach was "breath" or "wind" (as in Hebrew) and a deity. 
In Greece was the town Nem-ea, and Heracles slew the 
Neme-au lion as doubtless a form of evil or darkness ; and 
the classic Rhea, mother of Jove, may connect with Ru-th. 
A-Rea (Dan. 2: 35, 39, &c.) is Chaldaic for "Earth", but 
A-rea (trans, "appeared") seems of kin to Ra-ah ("to 
see", "shepherd", "evil"), and Ra was the Egyptian sun- 
god. Boaz seems the same as Bes, an Egyptian and Semite 
deit}^ and the Je-Bus for whom Jerusalem was perhaps 
called ; and he seems the Egyptian Bus-Iri, burnt by Hera- 
cles, and the Hebrew Bozerah or Edom ; the same perhaps 
as Job "in Auz" {B'Auz) or the Egyptian Thebaid or 
oasis, and "inShechan Ra" (trans. " with sore boils") ; and 
Boaz becomes Tob or " merry ", and lies down, but Ruth 
comes in Lat ("myrrh"), having Shech-ath (trans, "anoint"; 
usually "corrupted") herself, and she gets under his 
Caneph or " skirt" but a name of the god Ch-Num, as of the 
" skirt " of Sha-Aul ; for he is her Ma-Noach or rest (3 : i), 
and the diluvian hero, as also her near Goel or " kinsman" 
or "redeemer" or "avenger"; and Boaz discovers her at 



LOCAL NAMES OF GOD AND GODDESS. 1 37 

" midnight", or rather "in cHazi the Lilah" ("visions of 
the Night") ; and before dawn sends her away, telling she 
is a woman cHail or "bold", not "virtuous." Refilled 
her Mit-Pech-eth or " mantle" with barley, &c., though this 
seems to indicate Pachat the " lioness "-goddess of Egypt, 
as her " anoint " or Shech-ath also does ; the Mtt the Pack- 
ath (trans, "turns-every-way") or lioness which guarded 
the way of life (Gen. 3 : 24), and to whom (trans, "pit ") 
the body of Ab-Shalom was given, for we must remember 
the superhuman is being dealt with in these stories. Boaz 
proceeds to " buy " {Ka7tah') Ruth from her other Goel or 
" near-kinsman ", and gives his Na-Aal (trans. " shoe ") for 
her, &c. After this Aobed is born, and Naomi "laid" 
{Shith-ah; comp. Mosheh "drawn-out" or Mo-Shith-aK) 
him in cHeiq-ah and became Oman-ath to him ; and Aobed 
was a favorite name for Osiri as "lord of Abyd-os" or 
Abuttu (Egyp. Abut, the " East "), and practically the same 
as Amen at Thebes ; but at least we have here the child of 
the ancient " wandering-mother " of ^^\.\i- Lech-em or 
Epherath-ah. 

The name of the goddess-mother at this shrine was not 
only Naomi, but Ra-cHel, or Ruth as Chall-ath (trans, 
"daughter-in-law "), which Ra-cHel wept for children, as 
Niobe and Naomi (Mar-aa), dying as a wanderer from 
Syria or Moab in the labors of parturition ; and Epherath- 
ah (Gen. 35 : 19-20) is probably the Euphrates-goddess, as 
Mo-Abi-Iah may be "water-goddess", not "Moabitess"; 
and Ra-cHel seems (i Sam. 10: 2) called Zel-Az-ach (not 
"Zelzah"), perhaps the " shadowing- Az " or Asi (Isis), 
with two Ae-Nosh-im or cherubs at her Kabur-ath ("the 
Chebar-ath of ground" of Gen. 35: 16; trans, "some 
way " !) who seem the Nebo and Hadran of the goddess at 
Ma-Bug or Bam-Byke, near which town in Mesopotamia 
stands Edessa, now Orphe-ah or Orpah (Ruth i : 14), the 
ancient Roha, whose little river Roha was the Greek Skirt- 
os (Sakir-et ?), the Syrian Daisir, from which Roha we may 



138 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

have Roha-El. Beth Lech-Em (not " Lehem ") seems to 
be from Lech or Halech, "to go", "walk", "depart", 
hence "wandering" like Cer-es, Eleu-Isis, lo, Latona, 
Leto, &c., and so Ha-Gar or " the stranger " at Lach-ai 
Ro-i ; and we suspect the classic Leuco-Thea, wife of A- 
Thamas in one myth, and in another the daughter of Ora- 
Cham and Euri-Nome, and who was buried alive by her 
father for intriguing with Apollo, who metamorphosed her 
into the "frankincense" tree, which drug was called A- 
Zachar-ah or Az-Achar-ah, the former word meaning " mem- 
ory" or "remembrance", and the latter "tree of sorrow", 
though Acharru was "Syria " or land of the " west " to the 
Chaldeans; while Leuco-Thea would in Greek be " white- 
goddess." More important to this exposition, however, is 
the name Myr-tia or " myrtle " (Heb. Hadas ; hence Hadass- 
ah or E-Sehtar, Esth. 2:7) given to Aphrodite, and the 
classic tale of Myrrha the mother of Adonis by her father 
Cinyr-as, for Myrrha " wandered " to Arabia, as did Leuco- 
Thea, and became the " myrrh " (Heb. Lot or Mor), whence 
Naomi as Mar-aa and Ruth "in LaV (trans, "softly") to 
Boaz, as well as the Meror or " bitter-herb " at Pa-Sach, 
and the play on Lot and Aa-Morrha (not "Go-Morrha"), 
for when Naomi the cHam-oth-ah (trans, "mother-in-law "), 
possibly "Egyptian", comes to Beth Lech-Em she asks 
them to call her Mar-aa, as if from Mar ("myrrh"), since 
she comes at barley-harvest, this Ceres, and says " the Mar 
of Shadd-ai much tome", or the incense of the "field" 
{Sid-at) much to me, though the hieroglyph Mer means 
"waters ", the " sea." That this shrine of Myrrha or Mar- 
aa, mother of Adonai, was continued as such for some time 
after the birth of Jesus seems very probable, but as the 
Emperor Hadrian planted a grove at Beth Lechem a cen- 
tury after the Crucifixion the question would be whether 
the legend had been materially changed by the asserted 
birth of Jesus there, and yet it was reported that Hadrian 
wished to enroll Jesus among the gods, which we doubt, as 



LOCAL NAMES OF GOD AND GODDESS. 1 39 

his wish would have been law ; and his erection of a statue 
of Jupiter at the sepulchre of Jesus, and a statue of Aph- 
rodite on the hill Golgotha, seem derisive ; and yet he re- 
populated Jerusalem. It is not impossible to connect Beth 
Lech-Em with Alcmena (say Lech-Am-ena), mother of 
Heracles, for Naomi becomes "nurse" or Oman-ath, and 
the earlier phase of the cult there may have been of a ruder 
concept, for Heracles in his cradle or manger is famous, 
and the Ga-Ruth or *' manger" (strictly Aur-oth) of cHim- 
ev-Ham (Jere. 41 : 17), which A-Zel (trans. *'is by"?) Beth 
Lech-Em, tends to show the place was a shrine of mother 
and child at an early period ; and that this shrine was re- 
puted to have produced the deity David, or Osiri the ** es- 
tablished" {Tat), was an asserted faith, as also it was 
(Micah 5: 2) that when the good time came again, in "the 
Acher-eth days" (4: i), a Mo-Shel (trans, "ruler"), by 
metathesis Shel-Om [-eh] or "Solomon", would cpme 
forth, and his goings-forth "before" {Ma-Kedem) con- 
tinued forever ; though Ma-Kedem is " from the east ", and 
Mo-Shel or Shel-Om-eh might suggest wise-men to later 
times, as does the word Casid-im or "Chaldeans" in the 
Jeremiah text. 

We have said somewhat of Rebekah and Rachel, who 
seem to be much the same concept. The account of their 
origin and conduct probably requires one to look first to 
the northeast ; though the Assyrians and Egyptians were 
much nearer in respect to customs and cults that one may 
suspect. What is called the Syrian goddess had many 
names. Edessa, in Mesopotamia, the ancient Roha, Greek 
Cali-Rhoe, now Orpheah, was and still is a towm famous for 
a great natural fountain ; and like Hauran the town was on 
the Roha or Skirt-us, said to mean "vaulter", from its 
sudden rises, and from this stream and town we may have 
Roha-Chel as the patron-saint or -goddess there, and with 
the syllables reversed we would have Cheli-Rhoe. as the 
Greeks called the town ; but we doubt if the modern name, 



140 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

Orpah or O-Raphe-ah goes back to the cult of Orpheus, or 
rather of this feminine Euri-Dike, which would be good 
Hebrew for the " little Aor " or Nile as to the river, though 
Rapha was the Egyptian name of the Nile's wife; and 
hence the Orpah of the Ruth (i : 14) must be mere coinci- 
dence. Re-Bekah probably was a name of the great god- 
dess at Bam-By ke or Ma-Bug just west of the Euphrates, 
in whose temple was the fissure into which the Deluge re- 
tired, and pilgrims brought libations of water, even from 
the seas, to pour into it, as Deukalion directed (De Dea 
Syr. 12-13), ^^^d of course in *'piti::hers" (c//ad-zm) like 
that of Re-Byke at the well, doubtless brought to the 
"One" {A-c//ad), and possibly Isaiah's (66: 17) A-cHar 
A-cHad or "behind One" may be "Syrian One", as 
Acharru was Chaldaic for "Syria" or "westward"; but 
while that may not be Ma-Byke or Re-Bekah it may well 
be Adonai or Thamm-Uz, or Aram Anion (Rimmon); yet 
the "trough" (Skek-o/k), which the men stood by and saw 
the lusty goddess fill for men and camels, was probably the 
celebrated fissure, or from it. 

There seems, in these feminine divinities, three classes or 
types, the virgin, the sterile, the fecund, and the second 
type usually manage by divine help to get into the last. It 
is said that the battle between the chaste or virgin Ar-Tem- 
is of Greek ideality and the maternal or prolific Ar-Tem-is 
of Shemitic fancy was fought out in the course of time at 
Ephesus, a town said to have been founded by Amazons, 
and this perhaps because the great goddess there was under 
Shemitic influence a personification of fecundity, the breast 
of her statue being covered with nipples, wherefore Ama- 
Zonah or " mother-harlot " is good Phoenician or Hebrew ; 
but it seems the word Eph-Esus is connected with Asi or 
Isis. The sterile wives have a divine child only when 
visited by a divine personage, save Ra-cHel, unless Reu- 
ben's Doda-immade him temporarily so, yet she is of such 
advanced class that like Aphrodite she might condescend to 



LOCAL NAMES OF GOD AND GODDESS. 141 

favor a mortal such as Anchises. And the three Ae-Nosh- 
im who caused Sarah to bear, after she was incapable, seem 
only " men" till we reach verse 13; but in that instance an 
effort is made (Gen. 12 : 15-20) to connect Sarah's offspring 
with Pharaoh, while the text of the visitation (Gen. 18 : 10) 
in the Vulgate has " Sarah laughed behind the door of the 
tent ", which " laughed " or ** sported " (26 : 8) seems sup- 
ported by the Septuagint rendition of verse 12, *'and 
laughed Sarah in Kereb-ah, saying, not yet has it hap- 
pened to me till now", which show^ alterations of the orig- 
inal genre scene that conform to the denial Sarah makes to 
Jehoah when taxed with " laughing " ; nor is Abraham ever 
said to " know" Sarah, who boasts (21 : 6-7) *' Sport made 
to me God ", and saying, " who could be to Abram the 
guiltless" (comp. Ex. 20: 7) or " blameless" (Judges 15 : 
3), or "leave-unpunished" him, and adding "children" 
or " child " (Septuagint) of a Sar-ah (fem. of Sar-z's, 
" eunuch ") " that borne me to him in his old age a son " ; 
for it seems that Abraham had always treated her as a 
sister (20: 13), saying "when Hitha me God" (comp. 
Hathach the eunuch, Esth. 4: 5) I "said to her this thy 
cHasid (or holy-one) which make a pillar him to at every 
place " ; that is, she was a priestess to him, for Ammud 
means, not " with ", but " a pillar ", which perhaps " stood" 
(Ammud) before his oracle-tent ; but Abraham was aware 
of her deceit, and hence called the child Izachak as a satire 
on the " laugh " or " sport " of his fierce spouse, and pos- 
sibly he circumcised Izachak his son, " son of Shem-on-eth " 
(21 : 4) or "barren one", and outside the sacred seven, 
as an evidence of this knowledge, for at a later time (22 : 2) 
he was willing to sacrifice this /e-c //id (trsins. " only son ") 
or " mystery " (Num. 12:8; Judges 14 : 14 ; Dan. 8 : 23), 
with whose immaculate conception he seems not so well 
pleased, and which perhaps rendered him a subject of 
" sport " or "laughter", as Delilah's trick rendered Shim- 
shon a Zekak or " make-sport " to the Pele-Sheth-im. 



142 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

That the decline of the femininity or softer-phase of the 
Divine should have occurred in Canaan and in Arabia is a 
fact not sufficientl}^ observed or explained. That it was 
prevalent after the flight from the Chaldeans into Egypt we 
are told in the Jeremiah (44: 15, &c.), though it seems to 
us \h2i\iMalack-eth the Shema-im (trans, "queen of Heaven ") 
is rather '* Kingdom of the Heavens ", but the Azub-ah 
(trans, ''worship") of verse 19 seems the name of the 
Zabbe-ah or Sabbe, the Sib-yl mentioned as in Judea by 
Pausanias (10: 12), perhaps called Ai-Zeb-el or "Jeze- 
bel ", who may have divined by means of the stars of 
Shema-im or " Heaven ", and it is notable that the A-Zabb- 
aa or " finger" of Elohim (Ex. 31 : 18), in the ten words, 
separates the six days of Malach-eth from the one day of 
Shabbe-ath. It may be that at Jerusalem the goddess wor- 
ship was represented by " the abomination " or Shik- Az, 
which may have been the veiled Asi or Isis, as in Assyrian 
Such-at is a " veil ", whence Succ-oth or " tented " ; but the 
peculiar form of the worship, as well as the effort of 
Epiphanes to establish it, may have engendered prejudice 
against all feminine concepts, though they were continued 
in all the country about Jerusalem and in all neighboring 
nations till the gradual admission that Mary of Beth Lechem 
was the Virgin-Mother of God, a doctrine adopted by the 
Christian Church in A. D. 391, at Chalcedon; and this 
growth of her cultus was largely due to the fact that at 
Nice, sixty-six years before, Jesus had been formally de- 
creed the same as the august and distant Creator-God, and 
a softer or more human sympathizer and intercessor was 
needed. Doubtless if they had not been so persecuted the 
Jews would gradually have returned to this gentler ideal, 
and have found in their E-Sehtar, whom we consider in the 
notice of that book, somewhat more than the wife of a 
Persian king ; though perhaps their less plastic imagination 
would have yielded a heroine rather than a nurse like 
Naomi-Mar-aa of Beth Lech-Em Epherath-ah. 



LOCAL NAME OF GOD AND GODDESS. I43 

There was perhaps attached to the concept of the ma- 
jestic Sha-Aul a subordinate of more human and media- 
torial function ; what the Assyrians depict as a Shakk-al 
or attendant of their gods, being a smaller figure beside 
them, from which the Jewish name Me-Siach or Me-Shek- 
ah or " cup-bearer " {Ma-Shek-ah') came ; Sak being Ak- 
kadian for "leader", "captain"; and corresponding in 
sense with the flying "vulture" {Urau) or "victory" 
( Urau ; Heb. RuacK) which is depicted over the Egyptian's 
gods or their kings going to battle. That of Sha-Aul was 
personified in his son Jona-Than, which means " wine- 
giver" (^Iain-Nathan) y and same as the classic Ian- or Gan- 
ymede, in one sense, and of Hermes in another. Jonathan 
is the most perfect of all these Hebrew characters. Sha- 
Aul seems to intimate that David was father of Jonathan 
(i Sam. 20: 30), or at least that his mother was intimate 
with David. Apart from his devotion to both his father 
and David, little is to be said of Jonathan save his part in the 
famous 14th chapter of the i Samuel, on which the New 
Testament writers drew so liberally for their accounts of the 
Resurrection and even of the Epiphany. In that narrative 
Sha-Aul is found sitting in the Kez-ah (" summer ") which 
is in the Gibe-Ath, under the Rimmon in Mi-Geron ; a pic- 
ture of the Hades-king in his "den " or Gobbe drawn from 
the Nile in its caves or rocky bed at the first cataract. The 
Pele-Sheth or " flood " is of course in " garrison " or Ma- 
Zab. Secretly, attended by his Nesho Chel-ai, which seems 
the " eagle " or vulture-symbol, equivalent to the Zel-ach 
or " came-mightily " Ruach, which calls him Nat-ah (trans, 
"turn ") or Neter (Egyp. " God " in verse 7), and assures 
him of victory, the two " discover " {Gal-ah; also "foun- 
tain", " skull ") themselves, and the Pele-Sheth-im say the 
Abera-im are coming out of their cHur-im, which means 
"white" or "white-linen" as well as " caves" (Egyp. cHar 
or "face;" cHar-Un, "face-show"). The Pele-Sheth-im 
invite them to come up to them, and lodge, and "expel" 



144 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

(^Nodi-Iaak*) for them a Dabar (trans, "thing"; compare 
"thing ", Luke 2 : 15 ; comp. Mat. 28 : 6). The two went 
up and " the watchers did quake and became as dead men " 
(Mat. 28 : 4) ; for no doubt Jonathan's *' appearance was as 
lightning and his raiment cHur as snow ", as "trembling" 
or cHarad-ah is the Egyptian cHar-cHat (" god- white ") 
or cHar pa-Cher-at ("child-god"), forms f of cHor-us or 
"Hor-us" who defeated Sheth and avenged Osiri. And 
this cHarad-ah was in Ma-cHean-ah (trans. " camp ") and 
field and in all the people, and in the Ma-Zab ; and the Ma- 
Shech-ith (not " spoilers ", as it is not even plural form, 
but the Ma-Shech Jonathan) he cHarad; "and Game-the- 
Amen-ah " or Gam-Hamm-ah, which might be " they also " 
were it not for the conjunction, hence " and also the founda- 
tions ", though " handmaid " {Am-ah) fits the weeping 
Magdalene, as also the " true " or saints who (Mat. 27 ; 
52-53) arose from their tombs, for th-Eragaz (trans, 
"quaked") is the word that follows, and it means "coffer", 
"coffin" (i Sam. 6: 8). Howbeit, there was cHered-ath 
Elohim (trans, "exceeding-great trembling"), or "Son of 
God ", as the centurion said (Mat. 27 : 54), and as cHar 
pa-Cher-at or " God-the-Child " (Gr. Har-po-Krates) has a 
theophany. The watchmen of Sha-Aul saw the Amon or 
" faithful " Na-Mog, and go-away " silently " {Helam), just 
as the Mag-i, warned in a "dream" {cHelam) not to return 
to Herod, went another way (Mat. 2 : 12). 

This story no doubt originally closed at this point, but 
was too remarkable a picture of a theo-phany to escape 
elaboration. That it was Egyptian there need be little 
question, as even the name Jon-Athan may be the "visible- 
disk" (^Aoun-Ateri) of the Sun, for (Isis and Osiris, 11) 
Plutarch says " They do indeed characterise the rising Sun 

* Certainly not " show ". Nod and Nadab mean to "thrust-out " 
or " shake-up "or " move "or " cause to flee ", as Kain in Nod. 
Gesenius does not give the word Nodi-Iaah. 

tOne must know that the letter ** T " represents the missing " D " 
in Egyptian. Chaldaic " warrior " or Kurad. 



LOCAL NAMES OF GOD AND GODDESS. I45 

as if it sprang every-day out of the lotus-plant", the Pa- 
Shen ; the "rocky-crag" (^Shen) of Jonathan's advance; and 
the lotus was the flower of cHar pa-Cherat. But the elabora- 
tion converts it into the Har Ephera-im (v. 22) story of the 
famous pursuit or Dabak recorded of Abraham and Je- 
hoshua and Gid-Aon and Je-Pethach. Sha-Aul and his 
band hear the fighting, which increases after the other ac- 
count says the}^ had gone away (v. 19) ; and Sha-Aul is 
joined by the "Hebrews", who had been "to the Pele- 
Sheth-im as before " ; a statement which would present an 
ethnical question if we were dealing with history. And 
"all the land" came into the I-Aar (trans, "forest"), and 
there w^as Deb-ash on the face of the field, which Debash 
flowed, which recalls the old legend that the Jeor or Nile 
once flowed with honey for eleven days ; but Sha-Aul had 
"cursed" {Areur) the man who should eat, &c,, and the 
people feared the Shebu-Aah, as Shab-u (Egyp. "fox") 
was the Typhonian or Shethic emblem, represented by Sha- 
Aul (►S^wa/, "fox"). But Jonathan did not hear in the 
Shebi-Aa of his father, or the " oath " to the infernal deity, 
also understood in the word Areur, a milder or older con- 
cept of Sheth or Nub-ti, called cHar-Ur (Gr. "Haroer") ; 
hence put forth his rod and le-Te-Bol Aoth-ah, which 
seems the " flood-sign " which Jonathan as the rising Nile 
represents, and this "iu Ja-Aer-eth the Deb-ask" (trans, 
"honeycomb"), and then put his hand to his mouth as 
cHar pa-Cherat "the child-god" does, whereupon "could 
Ro-En-ah his eyes ", an allusion to a physical fact, as ap- 
pears from the " see how my eyes have been Aor-i " (v. 29), 
or " my fountains have become my J-Aor " or Nile ; and 
surely both words are not " enlightened " ; but the " honey- 
comb" of the Luke (24: 42) is not in the oldest manu- 
scripts, and has been rejected in later versions. Jonathan 
is mutinous, saying his father had Aa-Char the Earth, and 
A-Char is a name the noble A-cHeab (i K. 18: 18) gives 
the hairy Elijah, as " Egypt" (Arabic Kib-ti) speaking to 



146 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

the fierce Nile or Sun, though Akar is a name of Amenti 
or Kar Neter, thus personified. 

The hungry pursuers at last follow Jonathan's example, 
and slay and eat the captured cattle ; whereupon Sha-Aul 
declares they have " dealt-treacherously " {Begad-eth) with 
him, and asked that a stone be Gol to him, which is not 
clear unless he meant he was to go back into his den as 
the underground god, though perhaps he wished to sacri- 
fice if this second account does not end with the rolled 
stone ; and that this is true appears from the varied phrase 
Achel Aal ha-Dam in verse 33 and Achel El ha-Dam in 
verse 34 *, for here we have the Acel-Dama of the blood- 
betrayer Iscariot or the blood-betrayed Sekeri-Osiri ; the Kol 
Dam of Kain and the murderous Elijah (Gen. 4: 10; i K. 
19: 12), and the Gael ha-Dam (2 Sam. 14: 12) of the 
fratricidal case of Amenon ; which oath-bound avengers 
were perhaps the Benai-Israel as we hear nought of Benai- 
*' Hebrews " (comp. lalad-ai Abera-im of Ex. 2 : 6 with Ex. 
1:7), and the illustrations are found (Ex. 2 : 11-12) where 
Mosheh la-ich (''thy Jah"?) the Egyptian and "hid him 
in the sand " (^Tam-Un-eh cHol) or cHol Tamun-eh, which 
is Kol Dama or Acel-Dama, and so Jakob must have his 
knee touched before he can enter Canaan or be called Is- 
rael ; therefore cHel-ed as " mole " seems the secret " world " 
(Ps. 49: I ; also V. 7) or order, connecting perhaps with the 
great deity of Gaza or Azza called Ba-Aal cHel-Dim or 
cHel-Adam, the same as Esav cHulli Ae-Dem-oni (trans, 
"all-over red ")» of which concept the sibyl cHul-Ad-ai (2 
K. 22: 14), who gave the Torah or law, was feminine; 
wherefore Jonathan was the beneficent Nile or "wine- 
giver" or Me-Sek-ah who is not so bound to She-Oel the 
Hades-god that he cannot rise again and show human 
habits and sympathies, or his double (the two Shen, 14: 4) 

*One uses the long vowel Ain, the other the vague vowel Aleph, 
but neither means " with ", and we have here evidence not only of 
two authors but that Aal and El are synonyms, the former (Heb. 
"above") being the Egyptian Aal-u or " Paradise." 



LOCAL NAMES OF GOD AND GODDESS. I47 

nature; Eli-Shaa's Pa-Shena-im or "double-portion"; for 
even at an early day, among civilized peoples, like Egyp- 
tians and Chaldeans and Phoenicians, there must have been 
altruistic concepts, and revolts from nationalism as well as 
priest-craft, as the sect of Pythagoras shows, and these were 
coupled with hopes of a higher or "second" (Shen-ah) 
life; "wine" {Jain) perhaps typifying with many this 
spirit; and so we can be sure that Achel Aal (or El) the 
Dam or -Adam represents some such concept, as the sacra- 
ment of bread and wine does among Christians at this day. 

The third installment of the story begins with Sha-Aul's 
offering and his altar. He wishes to again attack, but the 
oracle was silent. Trial was then had, perhaps by Aor-im 
and Thummim, as to where the sin lay ; Sha-Aul saying 
Hab-ah Thom-im (v. 41), for Hab is perhaps "Thoth" or 
Ta-hut, the "ibis" (Egypt. /r«^)-head angel who recorded 
the "truth" (Egyp. Ta-Ma) at the trial of the soul in 
Amenti; whence Apollo as Pa-Hab ("the Ibis") or Pheob- 
us. Jonathan is convicted, and Sha-Aul is about to execute 
him, for he seems now the Nile-child; but the people ran- 
somed him, saying he had wrought the great le-Shu-Aah, 
and cried cHalil-ah (not "God-forbid"), perhaps a contrac- 
tion of Achel-Aal or cHel-El (Egypt. cHaut or "general", 
as they had no "L") or "warrior-god", for whom the 
cHalel or Halal-u-Iah was sung, and cHalal or " slain " is 
applied to him in the song (2 Sam. i : 25), though rendered 
"beautiful", &c. In the book of the la-Shar was a poem 
called Kash-oth, not "bows", but glorifying these sons of 
Kish or rivers from Cush, which "went-in" {Boa) at Gil- 
Boa. 

Shelomeh, called " Solomon ", is perhaps She-Gel-" image" 
{Omeh) ; and seems a mere Oriental type of Plutus or 
Pluto, the Hades-king. Sha-Aul is the concept of the 
Bedouin or Arab ; Shelomeh that of a more opulent people, 
whose dream is of power and lust and craft. We have sus- 
pected that the Assyrian Shal-Aman-Ezer II. (reigned B. C. 



148 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

858-824) or Shal-Amaii-Ezer III. (reigned 727-722), both 
of whom are said to have over-run Canaan, gave name and 
lent splendor to the concepts of both Sha-Aul and Shel- 
omeh, or at least the latter, whose local story was perhaps 
first that of Je-Did-Iah (2 Sam. 12: 25) or David-Jah, "in 
the Aa-Bur'' (trans, "sake") of Jehoah, that is, the Bari 
or sacred "boat" (Egyp. Oua) ; but it must seem that the 
concept given us of Shel-omeh was written after the Ezraic 
times (i K. 8 : 46) and by some one familiar with the pomp 
and profusion of courts. The alleged extent of Shelomeh's 
dominions (i K. 4: 21), from the Euphrates to Egypt, and 
even "over" (^Aber) the Euphrates (v. 24), might well 
point to Shalom-Nezer as the type as w^ell as the original 
name; Shelom meaning "peace." The Euphratic connec- 
tion is not augmented by the statement that Shelomeh came 
to be crowned riding a Pirad-ah, for Pur-at is too clearly 
the Hebraic word, though the Chaldean Ur-Urad is the He- 
brew Ararat." His mother was the faithless wife of the 
murdered Aor-Iah, which Aor is rendered " light ", " awake", 
and "Nile"; while Bath-Sheba would be "daughter of 
Sheb " or Seb, the name of the father of Isi-s and Neph-ti 
or Neb-ti. The wealth of Shelomeh was prodigious, since 
he had forty thousand stalls for his horses, made silver and 
gold as common as stones in the street, and had eighty 
thousand men to hew timber at Lebanon. The demi-urge 
of Tyre, cHiram or cHuram, was his cHer-ash or " carpen- 
ter." Shelomeh built Beth-cHoron (or -A-cHeron), Ba- 
Aal-ath, &c., towns whose names ill-accord with what we 
understand as the Jehoah cult. The older account (i K.), 
indeed, perhaps to destroy the worship of him, as well as to 
enforce Ezraic exclusiveness, says he worshipped A-Shetor- 
eth, that is E-Sheter or "Esther", and also Milach-Om 
Shik-Uz, and on Mount Olives he built temples to Chemosh 
Shik-Uz and Moloch Shik-Uz, and it would seem (i K. 11 : 
3, 8) that he built to the god of each of his seven hundred 
wives, for he had all these and three hundred concubines 



LOCAL NAMES OF GOD AND GODDESS. 149 

besides; but this evidence of his infidelity to Jehoah is 
omitted by the Chronicler ; where the dream of God's gift 
of a wise and "understand" {Neb-On and Shem-ea, i K. 3: 
9, 12) is changed into an actual visit of God to him (2 Chr. 
1 : 7), who gives him wisdom and Me-Dea (trans, "knowl- 
edge"). The later times accredited him with many wise 
sayings, some in the form of homilies, and because of his 
libidinous propensity he has credit for writing the charming 
and amorous Canticles; while the 2 Chronicles (8: 2, 3) 
makes him also a conqueror, and has it that the king of 
Tyre gives him cities, thus reversing the older narrative 
(iK. 9: 11-12), which also raises up enemies to him, and 
lays at his door the secession of the northern tribes. Wise 
and wealthy as he was, however, he left no inscriptions or 
other stone witnesses of his name, as did the neighboring 
monarchs of the Nile and the Euphrates. On the whole, 
perhaps, it would be safe to take him as the eponymous of 
Salem or Jeru-Salem, which was called Hiero-Solym-a by 
the Greeks at least as early as the time of Herodotus, say 
B. C. 350. 

Micha-El and Gabri-El first appear as names or personi- 
fications in the Daniel, though El-Gibbor (trans. "mighty- 
God") is a reverse form of the latter name (Isaiah 9:6); 
while the long narrative (Judges 18 : — 19 :) given to explain 
the origin of the great shrine of Dan (or A-Don-ai, " Lord") 
connects it with Micah and his Levite Jonathan, grandson 
of Mosheh (18: 30), who made a Pes- El (trans, "graven- 
image"), and a Ma-Sach-ah (trans, "molten-image"), and 
the former was set up ; but another account lays the foun- 
dation of this famous shrine to Jereboam (i K. 12 : 28-30), 
who seems to have been the name of Deity at Shechem ; but 
Micah means "slaughter" or "smiter", or "smitten", 
which latter would well fit the classic legend of A-Don-is, 
son of Myrrha; but the Daniel (12: i; also 10: 13, 21) 
uses Micha-El as descriptive of Macca-Bai-os, and the con- 
nection with the Dan-god, or Dani-El, is not clear; but 



150 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

Micha-El, whether **smiter " or "smitten", may suit well 
as a warrior-god. In this connection it may be noted that 
Shimshon was a Dan-i, and his Ma-cHel-Ep-oth (trans. 
" locks ") were the source of his great strength, though cHeli 
(trans, "armor", "sick", "bound") seems the root- word 
in this case, as in that of the barren Mi-Chal the daughter 
of Sha-Aul. And Gabri-El (Dan. 8: 16; 9: 21) is not 
perhaps so close to Gibbor or Aaber (trans, "mighty", 
" strong ") as to Kibor (whence Cabir-i) or the " sepulchre " 
{^Ka-Bor)-%Q^\ and when Daniel (Dan. 5: 11) is called 
Gebar this Chaldaic form should be rendered by a more di- 
vine name than " man ", since he is described as " in whom 
is the spirit of the holy gods " ; and yet we suspect A-cHabor 
(trans, "mouse") of the Isaiah (66: 17; comp. i Sam. 6: 
4, 11), the Greek Mygale or "shrew-mouse" which was 
the form Buto (Egyp. Uat) the nurse of cHorus took when 
she fled from Sheth, though the bronze figures of this sacred 
beast now found are labeled with the name of cHorus or 
" Horus ", and it is found embalmed at Thebes ; Plutarch 
saying the Egyptians deemed it an emblem of darkness, in 
which case it could not seem the Chebar (Ex. 24: 10) or 
"glory", as indeed the reference of the Isaiah seems to be 
to the Cabiri or Kabiri mysteries, and in Phoenician myth 
Zadek was father of the Kabir-i, while A-Shethar-ta ("As- 
tarte" or " Esther ")-Kabir-ath was wife and mother in a 
triad of herself, Baal-Thamar and Ha-Dad or ha-David, as 
in classic stories Cabira is wife of Hephsestos or Mul-Ciber, 
and a form of Cer-es ; and we see (Isaiah 9 : 6 ; 10 : 21) the 
name Gibbor probably applied to a concept of Deity ; but 
except locally Mul-Ciber or Vulcan, or even Apollo, was no 
more a deity among the Greeks and Romans than was the 
concept of Gabri-El or Micha-El, or our St. George or St. 
James of Compostellar or St. Peter, for really Peter or 
cHeph-as ("hidden ", not "rock") as janitor of Heaven 
seems rather like cHepliaestos or A-Nub-is. The usual be- 
lief that the Jews derived their angelology from the Persians 



LOCAL NAMES OF GOD AND GODDESS. I5I 

is worth little, since the concept pervades in some form all 
religions, though the peculiarity of wings, common to the 
deities of the Euphrates and to the feminine deities of 
Egypt, appears in the incipient stage on the shoulders of 
Eros and Psyche, and on the ankles of Hermes. The Latin 
Angel-US does not to us seem the Greek Aggel-os or " mes- 
senger ", but may be from the Egyptian words Ankh ("life", 
" living"), and Aal-u or *' Paradise", whence Hebrew El 
and Aal (trans, "above"); and Ankh-t or "Ankh" was 
the feminine triad-daughter at Elephantine and in Nubia as 
at Sehayle, Ch-Num and Sati being her parents, and she 
bears a spear, and has the " battle-mace" {cHut or cHud) 
in her hieroglyph name, whence perhaps Je-cHud-ah or 
"Judah." The Egyptians represented the "soul" {Ba) 




3 

A-Nub-is in charge of the body ; and the mouth is shadowed by the "Soul" 
(Egyp. Ba) which holds the life-sign and the sail in its hands. 

under the form of a hawk with human head ; wherefore the 
classic " Harpy ", which may be Egyptian cHar-Pe or 
" heaven-god " or " heaven-face ", though the Hebrew Har 



152 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

Ephera-im (trans. "hill-country-of-Epliraim") stories, which 
may be from this, seems rather ha-Rapha-im or " the heal- 
ed " or " the giants." The word Malach (trans, "angel", 
"king", "messenger") was perhaps originally associated 
with the sea or river, and is rendered "mariners" (Jonah 
i: 5), and in the Chaldean account of the Deluge the 
Malach-im are " sailors " on the El-Ippi or divine ark. Ma- 
lak, special deity of Surripak or Separa, whence the boat 
sailed, was a name of Merod-ach, called Shilig-Muluk (per- 
haps Heb. Shelachy "sent"), and at Tyre, so closely con- 
nected with Chaldea, the patron-god or saint was Malach- 
Arath or Malak-Kar, who must have been a sea deit3\ The 
difificulty of tracing the word in the Egyptian arises from 
the fact that they had no letter " L ", but Nun and Mer 
both meant "water", "sea." Perhaps the sails of ships 
suggested wings. 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE EVIL ONE AND SIN. 

IT requires mere candor to concede that the superhnman 
power ascribed bj' the mass of Christians to the Devil 
creates of this concept not only a personality, that of Evil, 
in an active sense, but a power which renders him a posi- 
tive Deity, invisible and omni-present. This concept is 
less distinct in the Jewish writings because Jehoah gave 
good and inflicted evil, and really that is also what the 
Christians and Mohammedans say God or Allah does ; cer- 
tainly at judgment-day. Our usual words, however, for 
this evil personage are found in the Jewish Scriptures, as 
the word Satan (often rendered "adversary"), and which 
perhaps connects with the Sha or Typhonian jackal of the 
long crop-ears, and so Arabic Shai-tan ; but the word Evil 
(Job i6: ii) is rendered "ungodly", and several times 
"fool" and "foolish", and the name Evil-Merodach (2 K. 
25 : 27) was applied by the Jews to the successor of Neb- 
uchadnezzar ; but Deb and Debar and Deb-eh ("evil- 
report") have been explained as connected with Greek 
Diahallo (" liar "). The ancients very reasonably sacrificed 
to the evil deities, for it is only a malevolent god w^ho must 
be propitiated; and so the Jews (Lev. 17:7) sent an Az or 
" goat " to Az-Azel at the same time that they gave one to 
Jehoah on the day of Chephor-im or Atonements, which, 
as solemnized at the autumn equinox, seems to have had 
reference to the " departing " (^<sr^/)-Sun, or Sun of winter, 
as "strength-departing" would be an exact rendering, 

(153) 



154 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

though we should say this depends much on the symbolic 
Chepher or sacred scaraboeus of the Egj^ptians and its mean- 
ing, for Egypt at the autumn equinox is " covered " with 
the waters, the productive element, and we should take the 
sacred Scarab or Sicar-Ab as a type of gestation whose prod- 
uct or result was so uncertain, so " disguised " {cHeph-esh, 
I Sam. 28 : 8), or " covered " (2 Sam. 15 : 30), that the ob- 
servance of lom Chep-or as the beginning of a new period 
was doubtless well typified by the black beetle or Chepher. 

We are all quite indelibly impressed that the Israelites 
had the same name of Deity, and the same religious ritual 
and concepts for some fifteen centuries, B. C. There was 
never a more certain error. The religious phases and 
transitions, always more or less nominal, which are re- 
vealed in the Jewish Scriptures are remarkable for their 
rapid alterations; and yet these are more apparent than 
real, since many of the illustrations we have are references 
to local cults of contemporaneous repute in the several 
towns of Canaan ; but a large residuum shows this error. 
Certainly, with the probable exception of Jerusalem, that 
down to the Maccabean period (B. C. 165) the religious 
divergencies in Canaan were not more a unit than might 
have been found in all or any of the countries around them. 
That conflict meant little else than the clash of eastern and 
western religious concepts, if we are to take absolutely the 
records we have ; and the Shemitic is more austere and dog- 
matic than the more plastic Greek ; but the incidents were 
largely the same. 

We have already pointed out that the classic legend of 
the great twin brothers, the Greek Dioscuri, is clearly visi- 
ble in all Jewish literature. It is a personation, sometimes 
vague, but none the less a personation, of dualism. Castor 
and Pollux on the Eurotas were Romulus and Remus on 
the Tiber, Sheth and Osiri on the Nile, Kain and Habel on 
the Jordan, Belle-Rophon and his brother further north, 
&c. It was sometimes or in some places that one brother 



THE EVIL ONE AND SIN. 1 55 

was honored, and sometimes or in some places the other ; 
but there was scarcely an instance where either was for- 
gotten, though under that particular name it is true we 
hear no more of Habel, though his name means " mourn- 
ing" and ** vapor " and ** meadow ", &c. But the names 
and phases of this dualistic concept are very numerous. 

" By many names men call us, in many lands we dwell ; 
Well Samothracia knows us, Cyrene knows us well ". — Macaulay. 

Nor was it as brothers ever, but often father and son, 
king and minister, brother and sister, two friends, lovers, 
&c. In Phoenician story El-Melech sacrifices his only son, 
then castrates or circumcises himself, and this only son is 
called Je-Hud in one legend and Shed-Ad in the other, or 
She-Dad ; and so Abraham offers his Je-cHud or " only-son " 
Iza-chak, and Sha-Aul would Jonathan, and Je-Pethach his 
Je-cHud-ah or "only-child ", Aga-Memnon his Iphigenia, 
&c. Then there is the official relation, such as El-Melech 
of Phoenicia and his scribe Taut, Osiri and the scribe 
Ta-cHut or " Thoth ", Pharaoh and Joseph, Zeus and 
Ganymede or Minerva, &c. Then, as friends, we have 
Achilles and Patroclus, David and Jonathan, Shelonieh and 
cHuram, Damon and Pythias, &c. All ideality must rest 
on phenomena for a basis. The Sun of summer and winter, 
the Sun and the great rivers Euphrates and Nile which 
practically come and go with him, the Sun and the Moon 
or Day-Star which wane when he comes, as Sem-Ele dies 
at the vision of her lover, the coming and going of vegeta- 
tion, &c. In the refinements of this duality appear astral 
bodies such as the Dog-Star, and the bright Day-Star which 
often appears to open and close the day ; for at twilight it 
guards or ministers to the Sun, and at dawn seems sent 
forth as a son or warrior or messenger ; but dies or is cru- 
cified in the skies; facts, however, which apply in some 
degree to the Moon, though the star seems more as the 
elder or supplanted brother, for it must have appeared 



156 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

phenomenal that this planet seemed never, at night or day, 
to cross the horizon. In some cases we seem unable to 
distinguish between the star and the ruddy Nile, and Ab- 
Shalom or Sarpedon (Sar-Api-Adon ?) would serve for 
either. That the ruddy "inundation" (Egyp. Sa) of the 
Hapi or Jeor should spend its force and retire was usual 
and somewhat better understood, but why should the bright- 
est of the stars not pass across the horizon ? as, indeed, why 
should the Sun only come from the south to the zenith at 
the First Cataract, and not go further ? The Greek poets 
explained either of these by the angry Zeus binding Prome- 
Theus, who seems the star, for that he had stolen fire and 
given it to men, as Adam was cursed for eating Pari (trans. 
" fruit"), a Greek word for "fire" (Heb. Bsk) ; which Esh 
suggests the "lentils" (^Ad-Esk-itn), sacred to cHar pa- 
Cherat the deformed child-god, which Esav received for 
his birthright, and the Dab-Esh of Jonathan's peril, and the 
Lot-Esh ("forger" ) Tubal-Kain, which seems "hidden- 
fire", as the cHeph-Esh (trans. " disguised") Sha-Aul does, 
while the Greek Heph-Aestos may seem the " hidden-star ". 
The Hebrew Az-Azel, which represents the solitary or soli- 
tude, in a greater degree, leads to such concepts as Kain, 
the dethroned Belle-Rophon, the exiled Saturn, the nature- 
god Pan ; for Az-Azel dwells in the Ma-Debar or " from- 
speech" ; and we thus reach the hairy gods or the " afore- 
gods" {Pani-El), perhaps reflecting chaotic conditions; 
wherefore, as somewhat inhuman (Gen. 27: 34), we have 
Esav's " exceeding great and bitter laugh" {Izak-ak), not 
" cry ", from which may come the story told by Plutarch 
("Cessation of Oracles") of the sailor Tham-asin the reign 
of Tiberius, who on the Adriatic heard the cry " Great Pan 
is dead ! " and which w^as heard at Tiberias about the same 
time, as Thomas cried of Jesus " My Lord and my God ! " 
(John 20: 28 ; 21 : i) ; for Esav had been supplanted by a 
Tham or "perfect" (trans, "plain") man (Gen. 25: 27), 
though Aish-Tam perhaps in time became " the Tamm- 



THE EVIL ONE AND SIN. 157 

Uz " (Ezek. 8 : 14) ; but it seems that " Isaac " or Izachak 
was "cHerad with exceeding great cHerad-ah", which sug- 
gests, not the diabolic voice of his son, perhaps, but that he 
and Esav were superseded by a more subtile race or con- 
dition or cult, for cHerad is the Egyptian Cherat,or "child- 
god " cHor-us, who overcomes Sheth or Typhon, or Nub-ti 
of the crop-ears. This great cry or laugh seems the Kol 
Dam of Kain and Elijah, and the Achel Dama of Sha-Aul 
and of Iscariot, of which we have spoken, and which may 
correspond with the autumn observance at the time of the 
inundation when the Egyptians cried " Osiri is lost ! " rather 
than to the Spring festival when they cried out " Osiri is 
found ! " for Esav's name or connection with Se-Air (Gen. 
32 : 3), not "Seir", seems to indicate Osiri only in the sense 
of the "flood-Nile" which drowns him, or hides the land 
which he personifies ; and Se-Air (Lev. 4: 24; 16: 8) sent 
to Az-Azel was a "sin-offering" as if in fear of a disastrous 
inundation; and yet the Persians (Plutarch, "Isis and 
Osiris", 46), who were of course on the Tigris, had a like 
custom, when " they beat a certain plant called Omomi in 
a mortar, and call on Pluto and the Dark ; and then mix it 
with the blood of a sacrificed wolf, and convey it to a place 
where the Sun never shines, and cast it away ". The prin- 
ciple is much the same as that illustrated by casting Jonah 
into the sea when the Sa-Aar (trans, "tempest") was to be 
propitiated, and Sa-Aar seems a word borrowed from the 
"flood-Nile ", for it came while Jonah was Jeir-Adam, which 
certainly sounds like the "red" or "bloody Jeor", though 
rendered "fast-asleep", while the Bet- An (Jonah 2: 2) or 
"belly" of She-Oel reminds one of the Beth-An-y where 
Lazarus was entombed, if the Aini-ah or "ship" did not 
suggest as much ; and so Jonah was brought up Ma-Shach- 
ath (trans, "from the pit"), which Shech-ath is the "cor- 
ruption" (Ps. 16: 10) to which the Nile-child is exposed, 
and whom we find personified as the evil Memphis goddess 
who had perhaps a fane (2 K. 23 : 13) on the Mount of " the 



158 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

Shech-ithe ", and who turns out to be A-Shetor-eth or 
"Esther" (E-Sether), or I-Shat-ach-Avah (2 Sam. 15: 32), 
the *' was- worshipped" of Mount "Olive" (Heb. Zeth ; 
Egyp. Ta-Shet), a word much like the Hebrew Shet-Aph 
for "overflow ". 

The astral view is that darkness, as the Moon or " eve- 
ning" {Ereb) -sX.2ir, overcomes the Sun, or that its recession 
in winter, with the resultant of cold and frost, produced 
many of these ideals, though it must appear that in Egypt, 
Arabia, Ethiopia, Chaldea, and even in Canaan, the heat 
and drouth is such that the Sun must have been deemed a 
foe rather than a friend, and that such concept would have 
come from less tropical or more northern peoples. Too 
rigid an adherence to any physical phenomenon as the sole 
basis of ancient cults is error, as defining the limits of 
human fantasy. And yet the Jewish Jom Chippor was 
celebrated the loth of the month Tishri (Egyp. Athyr), 
which was at or about the time of the autumn equinox, 
when the Sun's season of hiding in the " cloud" or " ship" 
{Anan) begins, and Chip-Par-eth (trans, "mercy-seat") was 
the "lid" of the Aron or "ark", and yet in Egypt this is 
at the precise time that the ruddy waters cover the land, 
and the river is in full flood ; and the " man " {Aish) Aithi 
(trans. " that-is-in-readiness" !) who takes the goat (Lev. 
16: 21-22) to Az-Azel, or to a land Gezer-ah (trans, "soli- 
tary"), seems to point to the Egyptian name of the month, 
which was that of the fecund " Athor " {Aha-t cHar, " the- 
Cow Goddess"), who may have been called Gezer-ah (i K. 
9: 16-17), while Aittai (2 Sam. 15: 19-22) seems connected 
with the worship of the hiding or under-ground god, as 
(Isaiah 17: 10) "planted plants" {T-Ittai N-Ittai) of Na- 
Aman-im seems to be a reference to the perennial or re- 
turning, so that Na-Aman (2 K. 5 : 14) after he is " dipped" 
{li-te-Bol) becomes "clean" (lit-Har), perhaps the Egyp- 
tian word Tat ("established";-" god" {cHar) ; and from 
this we may understand Jakob's words to Esav (Gen. 33: 



THE EVIL ONE AND SIN. 159 

14) "I will lead on" (not ** softly", but) "to Attai to spy 
the Melech-ah" (trans, "cattle"). We suspect, however, 
that Sheth or Set (Gr. Typh-on) who cofl5ns Hezir-i rep- 
resents the " flood" {Shet-Apk, Dan. 9 : 26) in the sense of 
excess. On the other hand the loth Tishri or Jom Chip- 
Pur occurs when the Pur-at or Euphrates, which reaches its 
height in August, has begun to " depart " {Azel), and 
Chep-Pur or -Pur-ath would mean the '* hiding " of that 
river ; but in either case perhaps the Aish ("man ") Aitti 
may be Ai-Shait or Shait-an or Satan. 

The dog-star Soth, our Siri-us, the latter name being 
supposedly derived from Greek Seir the " Sun ", and which 
rises and sets with the summer Sun, hence attends the 
rise of the Nile, has been ascribed much part in the con- 
cept of the sinister deity. It is impossible that this vStar 
should have been the object of a popular cultus, since it is 
scarcely possible to make a popular cultus out of such an 
apparently uninfluential object, though the constellation 
Orion, which they seem to have called Seh or Sach, to 
which it belongs may have attracted popular attention, es- 
pecially as the Sun has been overcome at the period of its as- 
cendancy. The star Soth seems consonant with the Hebrew 
Shot {ir2ins, "scourge", "flail") almost always depicted in 
the hands of Osiri and cHorus, the "fan" in his hand, but 
the Egyptian name of this emblem of majesty was Nechech ; 
and so the Hebrew word Shait (trans. " thorn"), probably 
the same 2.^ Shitt-ah (trans, "acacia"; Egypt. Sont)^ from 
which the Aron and Mi-Shechan were made ; while it is 
easy to see that Shet-Aph or "overflow " may connect with 
the name Soth. The Egyptian goddess Sa-ti, wife of Ch- 
Noum, is perhaps the same, as her name is "the-Sa" or 
" the inundation ", and So-th the star seems the same. 
But whether this inundation is to be deemed a Zel or 
"shadow", or the Aza-Zel, or Zel-ach (trans. " came- 
mightily "), is not demonstrable ; yet the idea of the Sheth 
or Sa-t cult or personage certainlj'^ seems to us that of the 



l6o SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

inundation as excessive or deficient, and the fiery star or 
giant constellation perhaps was deemed its herald or mes- 
senger, or its personification, and it brought the " sand-red" 
(Heb. cHol-Dam) which enriched Egypt ; but whether this 
can be interpreted in the sense of the Kol Dam and Achel 
Dama must be considered in reference to the incidents 
where that expression is used ; though if we could consider 
the two Niles as Esav and Jakob, or as Kain and Habel 
{ha-Bel means "the flood"), as Romulus and Remus, as 
Osiri and Sheth, as Castor and Pollux, &c., we might see 
that the blood of his brother might be connected with the 
interesting phenomena of the two wondrous streams, the 
Abai or A-Zer-ak and the Abaid. In the description of 
their famous meeting Jakob is twice (Gen. 32 : 18, 20) 
said to be A-cHeron, and his Ra-cHel and Joseph (33: 2} 
are A-cHeron-im, while his " messengers " (32 : 3) are 
Melach-im; and he seven times ^' ho^o.^^' (^Sheth-acK) to 
Esav ; all seeming to represent water names ; as, indeed, 
the wrestling of the two was till Aal-ah the Sa-cHar (trans, 
"the day breaketh"), and Sa-cHar is the Egyptian ** flood- 
god " or -"face ", and so the " lead on " (33 : 14) " to Attai" 
(trans, "softly") seems the flood month (Sept. -October) 
Athor. Shith is usually rendered "drink", and in the 
" bowed " or Shet-ach we may find the classic St-yx, as 
Jakob has been already called Acheron, which is a Greek 
form of the Egyptian cHaron or pilot of the dead, and this 
seems a title claimed (Isaiah 44 : 6) by Jehoah, who says 
" I am the Rieshon and the Acheron ", which we have 
(Rev. 1 : 8) as " I am Alpha and Omega ", and the initials 
of which latter are said to be the A-O or I-AO on early 
Christian tombs. The meeting of the two brothers ends 
with the return of the lordly Esav to Se-Air-ah, not " Seir ", 
just as his hairy counterpart of the Elijah story was 
"taken-up" {Nes-eo) "in Se-Aar-ah the Heavens" (2 K. 
2: 11), and he appears no more as an active character ; but 
the Se-Aar-ah in each case would seem to be, not a goat- 



THE EVIL ONE AND SIN. l6l 

goddess precisely, but that divine-barge of Osiri which had 
as a prow-head the long arched head and neck of the oryx 
(Egypt. Ma-cHet or "beast-white") with its eyes turned 
toward the departing Deity whom it bears away ; and the 
name Sa-Air or Sa-Aar, rendered both "goat" and "hairy," 
is applied alike to Esav and Eli-Jah, and they both had the 
Adder-eth (trans, "garment", "mantle"); while Jakob's 
lame "thigh" or Jerich seems to have been misunderstood 
by the other writer when he tells of Elijah's request (2 K. 
2 : 4-6) that Eli-Shaa tarry at Jerich-o ; but if we say that 
Esav or Eli-Jah is the murdered Osiri, we dispense with the 
meaning of Isara-El, applied to Jakob by El-Shadd-ai (Gen. 
35: 9- 11) as well as by his night-wrestler, as the name 
Osiri-El, though this name may merely mean "Osiri-ised", 
as all good Egyptians were when they had been re-absorbed 
into Him from whom they emanated, for such we take to 
be the meaning, in a hypothetic waj'', that was attached to 
the name Isra- or " Isara-El-ites ", which is somewhat 
equivalent to the Abera-im ("Hebrews") or those who 
could "pass-over." But we take it that the flight of the 
knave Jakob, who had defrauded Esav, and his servitude 
with Laban, which means "brick", and the conduct of 
Jakob there in cheating Laban of his cattle, together with 
the subsequent flight and pursuit by Laban, with the peril 
of meeting his brother, and the final arrival at Succ-oth, to 
be an epitome of the supposed sojourn in Egypt, where 
Israel was enslaved to make " brick " or Laban, but es- 
caped from Ramases to Succ-oth, and then through the 
land of "Silence" (^Ma-Debar), yN\\}a. the pursuit by their 
master to recover the Nezzel or " spoil " they had stolen ; 
each seeming to us an illustration of the favorite story of 
the ancients that a soul or a hero could descend into 
Hades and return or revive, and Hades or She-Oel was 
merely a name of death or the grave, of which we may get 
perhaps an average of their opinion in the early verses of 
the Zechariah (i : 8-17,) where the riders of horses, both 



l62 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

"red" {Edom) and "white" {Laban), were in Hadas-im or 
under the "myrtles" "that in Ma-Zull-ah " or the "shades", 
and who go to and fro in the Earth. 

The words Az, Ez, Haz, cHaz, and their variations seem 
usually applied to sinister concepts or objects or persons. 
We see that Job suffers in the land of Auz, which was the 
Thebaid of Egj^pt, as well as the Uas or jackal-head staff 
the Egyptians carried in the sinister hand, while Az or As 
with one of our first three vowels suffixed was the well 
known name of Isis, as As-ar was that of Osiris. Azar-Iah 
or Auz-Iah (2K. 15: i, 13) naturally becomes a Zer-aa or 
"leper", which statement is turned to account (2 Chr. 26: 
16-23) by the later Jehoist in behalf of the priesthood, but 
his cHeph-Shaveth (trans. " several ") house is probably the 
"hidden- valley", since his acts were recorded first and 
"last" {Ackeron-im) ; and he seems the same as Auz-ah (2 
Sam. 6 : 3-9) who was smitten for touching the Aron, for 
" brake-forth " is Par-Az in the king's case and Zerach-ah 
in the latter, reminding us of Thamar's twins, Perez and 
Zerach, whom we suspect as the Dio-Secur-i or twin Niles, 
the Abiad and Azer-ak, or Jakob and Esav or Edom, for 
Aa-Ramm-i Obed (Deut. 26: 5) seems not to us "Syrian 
ready-to-perish ", as Aa-Rom in Egyptian is " great-man ", 
and Abet means "east" or may allude to the great shrine 
of the white god Osiri at Abut-u or Abyd-os ; and Obed- 
Edoni (2 Sam. 6: 10-12; i Chr. 26: 4-15) might seem some 
prosperous .stage or junction, as the names of his sons 
Shelem-Iah, Sachar, I-Sachar, Joach, &c.,may attest. The 
myth of Osiri, that his cofi&n or Aron floated to Byblos, and 
there lodged in a " tree " (Heb. A2 ; Gr. Zeos), is perhaps 
Greek so far as Byblos in Phoenicia is concerned, and per- 
haps is drawn from a similar myth from Babylon, of which 
Byblos was perhaps a colony, and the word Bol or Ma-Bol 
(Heb. and Coptic "overflow") may have misled; but Cre- 
tan coins are extant showing the beardless Zeus seated 
in a tree with the inscription " Phel-Chan-os", which seems 



THE EVIL ONE AND SIN. 1 63 

to refer to the son-god Chen-Su the son of Amen at Thebes, 
and may connect with the youth Chepha-Isseos of Cyprus, 
for whom the funereal cypress, and with David dwelling in 
cHor-Esh (trans, "wood"), which word seems a secret- 
workman such as cHur-am of Tyre and the "artificer" 
Tubal-Kain, and explains why Jesus was a "carpenter" or 
secreted-deity for some years ; and the Greek Demi-Urgos 
or "house-builder" means the like, while in Hebrew lezer 
is "creator" (Gen. 2: 7, 8) or "maker", hence Dam-Ma 
Shek ("red cup-bearer") El-Iezer whom Abraham feared, 
though, as the Egyptian "Z" sound was expressed by "S", 
it may be seen that Oziri and Osiri is the Hebrew lezer, or 
Ae-Zer, a " maker"; Mosheh and Aharon both having sons 
called El-Iezer, while the word Isara-El or "Israel" is not 
to be overlooked; and so we have (Isaiah 44: 12, 13) 
cHaresh Az-im, the first as " smith " and the two words as 
"carpenter " ; though we must not forget that Sar-is (Heb. 
" eunuch ") seems derived from or allusive to the mutilated 
0-Sir-i. In passing it may be well to note that " created " 
(Gen. I > i) is Bera or Bere, though we suspect that Elohim 
or the " Time "-god only " passed-over " {Ae-Ber), yet Bar- 
Ezel or Bare-Zel is rendered "iron", and it might seem 
that Bar-Zill-ai of Rogel-im (2 Sam. 19: 31-33), who figures 
as friend of the fugitive David, was as the lame smith-god 
who fabricated armor for Achilles, and Rogel-im means 
"feet", though we scarcely hesitate to connect Rog-El or 
Arag-El with the name Erachel-es or Heracles, for Vulcan 
and he were much the same concept, if not identical, as Bes 
or Melek-Arth in Syria, as Arag (trans, "web") is applied 
to Shimshon (Judges 16: 13; comp. Isaiah 59: 5), but is 
not less the Greek Arach-ne than their word Urg-os (whence 
our " irrig-ator ", " org-anizer " ; perhaps "oracle"); yet 
Arach in Hebrew is also " wayfarer", " array", &c. ; but 
that Heracles spinning at the feet of Om-Phale is a S5^rian 
story might appear from the name of her father Jardan-us, 
and their son A-Gela-us unites the names of Achilles with 



164 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

those of Chal-Dim the god of Gaza, who is the Goli-ath 
who had or was the Menor Oreg-im or " beam of weaver", 
same as Jaare-Oreg-im (2 Sam. 21 : 19) the son of El- 
cHanan. 

The use of Az or Azer and their compounds in a bad 
sense tends to show that Sheth and not Osiri was the con- 
cept of Deity at one time in Canaan or among some towns. 
The aversion to swine, sacrificed to Osiri in Egypt, may 
have thus arisen, and the Jews called " swine " Hezir ; be- 
sides which the name of Sheth at Ombos, Nub-ti, was 
preserved in that of Neb-ae or " prophet ", it may seem, 
though A-Nub of the jackal-head was a modified form of 
Nub-ti, and his function more in harmony with that of a 
go-between as to God and mankind. But of course the 
names of the dualistic concepts in Egypt were not neces- 
sary to the concept of a Devil in Canaan, though the name 
of the chief deity of a discarded religion would not usually 
escape as the title of the evil element ; and this was evi- 
dently what Az-Azel was to whom the Se-Air or *'goat" 
was sent; nor is it at all unreasonable, or a strain upon 
philology, to say that both Hezir a *'hog" and Se-Air a 
"goat" probably connect with the name of the murdered 
Osiri or Oziri. The ritual importance of the Se-Air-im 
sent to Az-Azel is much diminished by the fact that it seems 
not to have been observed for any length of time, or may 
have been a Persian rite introduced after Nechemiah^s con- 
trol and soon abrogated; for in the next chapter (Lev. 17: 
7), which may be of current date with 2 Chronicles (11 : 
15: comp. 29 : 20-36), it would seem the goat was not sent 
away but was killed, and that the cult of the Mendesian 
goat was abolished. The general idea seems that of the 
two-faced ''year" or J-Annus at Rome, and there was a 
story explanatory thereof which said that when Jove de- 
throned Sat- Urn (-Aron) he fled to Italy and became joint 
sovereign with Janus or Dion (Heb. A-Din, "time"), and 
was there called Lat-eo or *' hidden", whence Lati-um, just 



THE EVIL ONE AND SIN. 1 65 

as Lot or the ** hidden " fled from Sodom to a cave, but this 
Lot and Lat-eo were probably P-Luto if we could affix the 
Egyptian definite article, for Egypt and Phoenicia seem to 
have supplied the early Romans or Italians with the names 
of God, as Quirin-us seems cHaron or A-cHeron, Numa 
seems Ch-Noum or Num, Cam-ill-us may be cHem-Aal or 
the ** Egyptian-god ", Nep-tune easily connects with Neb 
or Nub-ti, Jupit-er with E-Gyp-t, &c. The Roman Sat-Urn 
is identified with the Greek Kron-os, a mere form of 
cHaron or Quirin-us, and so Lot's father was cHaran, a 
word which in Hebrew is rendered ** horned" as in Greek 
but 'as a reference to cHeron or cHoron the "after"- or 
"hereafter "-God. But Saturn or Kronos, as father of 
Jupiter or Zeus, corresponds with Seb or Sheb the father of 
Osiri, which, as in the others, is the dualism of age as 
against youth or vigor, and it is quite possible that this is 
the distinction made in the Jewish Decalogue, of one day 
to Shab-ath and six days to Malach-eth or Malach-ah 
(trans, "work"), but, save in the sense of an "old" (Heb. 
Skib) or father-God, there is little direct or circumstantial 
evidence to connect this observance with the Egyptian con- 
cept, though it must seem that Malach-ah as " work " must 
belong to the demi-urgic or secondary ideal of the Divine. 
We have dealt with the Egyptian concepts of evil, and 
their personifications of it, which must have widely in- 
fluenced religious thought, and which have been left to 
us, not in words but drawings which are object-lessons. 
The Euphratic peoples of that time seem to have practically 
had the like ideas, and certainly Persian literature shows 
that that people personified the evil element. The Greeks 
and Romans were less serious, less gloomy, and seemed to 
unite the dispenser of evil in the same deity who dispensed 
good, save that austere potentates such as Hades or Pluto 
or Minos, &c., seem dignified but inexorable punishers 
of wicked men. The Jews of the time of Jesus seem to 
have been to some extent Grecized, and spoke of daemons; 



l66 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

and persons of diseased intellect or mind were supposed to 
be possessed by a daemon ; which were perhaps somewhat 
like the Shedi ("geni") of the Chaldeans or Furies of the 
Greeks; but what the Shed-im (Ps, io6 : 17; Deut. 32 : 17) 
of the earlier time were is not clear. The word '' sin " 
(cHatt-ath, Gen. 4: 7), so potent in the mouth of ecclesias- 
tics, might seem from its Hebrew form to be any adherence 
to the rites and practices of the cHit-i (trans. *' Hitt-ites"), 
who were perhaps the body of the "people of the land" till 
the Maccabean war, and who perhaps received slowly the 
religious ideas of Ezra (9: i) and Nechem-Iah (Nehe. 5: 
17), but whose concepts of Deity are perhaps many of the 
personages who figure in the narratives. 

It seems to us from the general trend of the teachings of Je- 
sus that, not only was sin in the world when he came, but that 
he came to save the world from it (John. 12 : 47), and John 
the Baptist taught that sin was here (Luke 3:3; Mark i : 
4); both holding that to "repent" (J^^. Nachem) would 
remit sins (Mat. 4: 17; Mark i: 15) , preparatory to the 
divine government '*at hand" {Kerob). But in the John 
(15 : 22, 24; 16: 8, 9) Jesus startles us by saying that if he 
had not come "the world" would not have had sin (15: 
19), and that sin is merely disbelief as to him (16: 9); a 
statement which tends to show that at the date and place 
of this Gospel the Church was strong. Jesus nowhere 
makes use of the Adam and Eve story. In the Matthew 
(26: 28) he says the wine he offers is his blood, " shed for 
many for the remission of sins" ; an averment not found in 
other accounts of the Last Supper (Mark 14: 24; Luke 22 : 
20; John 13: 2). Peter is held to say that repentance and 
baptism suffice to remit sins (The Acts 2: 38; 3: 19), but 
elsewhere (10: 43) that those who believe in Jesus "shall 
receive remission of sins." In the Luke (24: 47) repent- 
ance only is necessary to the remission of sins, but the John 
(i:29;3: 16-17) avers that belief in Jesus remits sins. 

Whatever the doctrine of Jesus as to the remedy for 



THE EVIL ONE AND SIN. 167 

sins, the bold Paul was the first perhaps who claimed that 
Jesus was the propitiation or sacrifice that supplied the 
remedy (Rom. 3: 24-25; 4: 25 ; 5: 6, 8, 21 ; i Cor. 15: 3, 22); 
a doctrine apparently in conflict with that second coming 
taught by Jesus in the 24th of the Matthew and the 15th of 
the Mark. According to Paul, Mes-Siach had come, and 
not to save the Jewish nation, or even its faith, but to ex- 
piate the supposed sin of the human race. What sin ? Not 
that which each person may have committed, and which 
Jesus and John had urged repentance of, but an apparently 
trivial act done by the alleged ancestor of mankind several 
thousand years before ! It was reserved for this ingenious 
Paul to revive a story never once referred to even in the 
Old Testament literature save where it is told, and to as- 
sign the wretchedness of mankind here and hereafter to 
this story, as well as to supply a motive for the mission of 
Jesus and for his execution. Paul's use of the words 
"kick against the pricks", put by Euripides (Bacchae) 
into the mouth of Dion-Isus, after he broke his bonds, 
shows Paul was not ignorant of Greek mythism, and from 
the utter absence from his writings of all allusion to the 
birth and career of Jesus it might be suspected that Paul 
was dealing with the ancient and universal cult we have 
been discussing. Howbeit, his conceit as applied to an 
historic Adam, unnatural as it is, and which draws to itself 
no whit of sanction from God's talk to Mosheh and the 
patriarchs, or from any word of Jesus, was adopted by the 
Church as a basic dogma as soon as that body became so 
strong and idle as to leave the staff of the evangel at the 
door of temples and cathedrals of their own. No doctrine 
which carries with it a tithe of such consequences has ever 
before or since been asserted; certainly none on such a 
frail thread of authority ; none is less supported by rational 
thought or a sense of justice; yet its vitality, rooted in the 
most striking of terrestrial and celestial phenomena, is 
sustained and fed by the devout purpose of a cult, which 



1 68 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

believes itself monotheistic, to lay the blame of the presence 
of Evil in the world on the ancestor of mankind, and to 
relieve Jehoah of the onus of diabolism. Paul's first idea 
was perhaps to advance a historic reason to those of the 
Dama ("blood ")» the Jews, for the sacrifice of the divine- 
man, as the first question as to his fate must have been why 
so good a man should have been put to death, since if it 
was for his own sin or fault he could not have been 
divine, and it would be impious to allow that Deity sacri- 
ficed a child of his loins without a motive of immense 
portent. Nor was it easy for a monotheist to say that the 
Devil had triumphed, though the Luke (22: 3) and the 
John (13: 27) imply as much. Paul, however, seems never 
to have heard of Iz-Cariot's agency, for it is likely he al- 
ludes to the Jews generally in i Cor. (11 : 23), as Stephen 
does (The Acts 7 : 52) ; nor does Paul lay stress on anyone 
for the death of Jesus, though probably he was in Jeru- 
salem at the time of that event. He does not even accuse 
the existing or any past generation of men of that sin or 
sinfulness which made Jesus and the sacrifice of him es- 
sential. But, by a giant mental stride, he seizes on the 
common ancestor, Adam, as the guilty person ; thus deftly 
absolving God of the onus ; and not this only, but enabling 
God to do an act of gracious sort and of mercy by coming 
forward, after forty centuries, as a lover of men to that 
intense degree that he sent his only child to be killed in 
order to rescue the Adam-ah (trans, "ground") from the 
curse one man had caused him to put on it. Paul leaves 
the after generations no part in this wondrous drama save 
to believe or have faith that it is true. It was perhaps 
when controverted as to this question of mere saving faith, 
probably by the James, that the Galatians was elaborated 
by Paul into the fuller averment of his Letter to the 
Romans, where the strange doctrine is set forth in its 
entirety. 

The ordinary doctrine of sin, and of its propitiation by 



THE EVIL ONE AND SIN. 169 

sacrifices, or the offerings of food and gifts to Deity, is in 
some form everywhere and ever3^when common among men. 
The priests who have the use of these offerings are intense- 
ly interested in this part of the ritual. In Paul's time, 
Jehoah at Jerusalem, Sar-Apis at Alexandria, Dion-Isos in 
Greece, Jupiter and Isis at Rome, as well as many others, 
each with sleek priesthood, and all protected by the civic 
order, was adored by the masses. In prosperous or peace- 
able times religions become more perfunctory, more ritual- 
istic, and more indifferent to moral conduct as a whole. 
In the hills of Galilee, however, special influences were at 
work in the restful days of Augustus, and circumstances 
directed these influences against the hereditary Brahmans 
at Jerusalem. The epoch was propitious in more aspects 
than one for bringing forward a hero, a reformer, a saint ; 
some one who would make personal sacrifices to vivify a 
cold and passive cult, as well as alter wretched social and 
degrading political conditions. Several Galileans of the 
first century attempted this, as Josephus shows ; but theirs 
was mainly an armed effort, or one of violence. Jesus was 
also unsuccessful so far as numbers were concerned (The 
Acts I : 15), but left the fame of a moral as well as relig- 
ious teacher, of gentle and gracious methods, and as hav- 
ing risen bodily from the Kabar. Paul was perhaps his 
first convert outside of Galilee ; certainly the earliest Chris- 
tian writer, for his epistles antedate the Gospels ; and the 
accession of this able and persistent man perhaps saved the 
sect from extinction. His conversion, told in his own 
writings (Gal. i : 11-17), hints at some divine manifesta- 
tion to him while he was in Arabia (Ereb, Erebus?) ;* Eli- 
jah's Oreb-int (trans, '"ravens") ; a statement which is thrice 
found in The Acts, a book compiled some fifty years later, 
where the narrative of it has grown more specific and to 

*Ereb is Hebrew for ** west", and is thus connected with darkness 
and Hades. Jesus was led by the Spirit into the Ma-Debar, which we 
take to mean the same. 



lyo SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

dramatic proportions ; but, whatever its incidents, the fact 
remains that this intellectual man became an advocate and 
an evangelist of Jesus, and this not long after his death ; a 
fact which appeals to the most skeptical as evidence that 
Jesus was no ordinary personage. That none of the inci- 
dents of his life, birth or death, and but little of his logia, 
are cited by Paul, whose letters are older than the Gospels, 
is certainly surprising, since it must seem that he had 
knowledge of these in some sort; and yet he bases his whole 
creed on two events, that Jesus had suffered death in the 
cause of moral and religious betterment, and had arisen in 
his physical nature from the grave. Paul was of an ardent 
and heroic temperament himself, and the obstinacy with 
which the Galileans adhered to Jesus (Jos. Antiq. i8: i), 
as in the case of Stephen, must have caused him to reflect 
that this sect had a loftier ideal of devotion than those 
which current Phariseeism presented. That ideal of heroism 
for others, of self-sacrifice by the young and unpolluted, 
filled all literature, then as now. It was called Buddha on 
the Yellow Sea, Krishna on the Ganges, Baldur on the 
Baltic, and for many centuries had borne numerous names 
all around the Mediteranean. Hebrew as well as classic 
story reeked with it; the Pyr which. Prometheus stole being 
the Part that Adam ate ; giving name to the empyrean and 
the pyramid (Egpt. Pzremz's, ^'zenith''), to Perseus and to 
Paradise ; the Latin purus (''pure") and the Hebrew Phari- 
see (" separated "). Perhaps Paul's reading taught him the 
kinship of religious ideas, and enabled him to break the 
narrow bonds of Jewish exclusiveness, as Jesus certainly 
had done. Paul does not write that he himself did any 
miracles ; nor does he seem ever to have known of anyone 
save Jesus who had been raised from death to life. That 
statement he sincerely believed ; believing it, he considered 
Jesus the divine man ; and a divine man could only come to 
purify mankind. Consciously or unconsciously Paul con- 



THE EVIL ONE AND SIN. 171 

nected Jesus with the universal ideal. He knew that He- 
brew literature told that of old, in time of impending 
calamity, the first-born had been made a burnt-offering 
(2 K. 3: 27; 21 : 6; Jere, 7 : 31 ; Ezek. 16: 36; Micah 6: 7); 
that this seemed ordained by Nehemiah (10: 34-36), that 
Jehoah had even told Abram to do it, and that the rite was 
still practiced in Greece (Pansanias 8: 38). Paul perhaps 
shared the belief that the world was about to be destroyed, 
and may have expected Jesus to return (i Cor. 11: 26); 
hence some stupendous ** sign " was to be looked for. But 
Paul, nor any other, could improve upon the "sign " (^AotK), 
which his word M-Aran-Aiha ("from the Aron") merely 
repeated (16: 22); he could only identify the crucified 
Jesus with current and ancient cultus ; rendering him the 
sacrifice ; the great step forward being the association of 
him with a new Berith for the benefit of all men ; the sons 
of Noach (Mat. 24 : 27) and of Nineveh (16 : 4), and not an 
absurd restriction to the sons of Abram ; and this because 
it was the common ancestor Adam who had sinned. When 
Paul wrought out this broad but curious conceit he raised 
Christianity from a little Galilean sect, and made it the heir 
of Mithra, of Dion-Isos, of Osiri, of Adonis, of Baldur ; in- 
deed, of all the pathetic cults from the Euphrates to the 
Rhine. He found in the little he knew of Jesus a sufficient 
ideal, and the facts of his life were of small account. 

After all, however, Paul's structure is based on ditheism. 
He recognizes Satan in so many words (2 Cor. 11: 14). 
He recognizes him or some other adverse power even more 
when God is required to offer his son as a propitiation, as 
Agamemnon offers Iphigenia, when a single word from the 
author of the univerce would have removed sin. This 
position w^as seen to be illogical for monotheism ; hence 
this painful humiliation of the Creator is ascribed to love 
of men, and his wish to prove it to them ; a proposition 
which still postulates the enormous power which sways 
the world toward sin. 



172 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

Paul's theory, less the part in it taken by Adam.was early 
embraced. In the i John (i: 7; 4: 9-10, 14) it is fully 
dwelt on as an act of love for men on the part of God. It 
appears in the Matthew (26: 28), and in the John (i : 29- 
36; 3: 16-17), where Jesus is called the "lamb" (Heb. 
ShaK) of God; and the Apocalypse amplifies (5: 6, 8, 12-13, 
&c.). The putative Pauline books, Ephesians (2: 13), 
Colossians (i: 14), i Thessalonians (i : 10; 5: 10), and i 
Timothy (i : 15 ; 2 : 6), have it ; and so Hebrews (2 : 9, 17) 
and I Peter (2: 24). The sacrifices of men for others is 
quite common ; the sacrifice of himself for men by a deity 
or demi-god was not unusual ; and these writings readily 
adopted it ; but none of them follow Paul in his extra- 
ordinary and astute effort to fix the guilt on Adam. Sacred 
writers could conceive of individual sins, and even of na- 
tional ones; and atone time it is said all men were drowned 
because of the general depravity ; but it was left for Paul 
to attach to the human race a vicarious suffering because of 
Adam, and to grant them a vicarious blessing because of 
Jesus. 

An ordinary sacrifice or offering to Deity, especially of 
one's most valuable thing, was and is thought to reconcile 
or appease him ; but that only establishes amicable relations 
of the suppliant with one who can withhold good or inflict 
evil. When, however, Deity is conceived of as good, and 
good only, the presence of Evil in the world must seem an 
influence or power apart from and hostile to him as well as 
to men. Paul showed how the story of Adam's sin was the 
quarrel or alienation of mankind from God, caused by or 
causing the intrusion of the third party of the triad, and 
that, to assist men to purge the world of this third party, 
God sent here his only son to be sacrificed. This implies 
that God cannot abate or destroy Evil save with the help 
of man, and that it has an existence independent of him. 
By the offering of his son God did not abolish sin, but 
made an advance toward co-operation with men against the 



THE EVIL ONE AND SIN. 173 

common enemy ; which co-operation can only be had by a 
*' faith " or belief that Jesus was the divine son, and that he 
was sent to die and did die in order to remove or remit the 
racial curse or collective sin caused bj^ Adam ; this being a 
magnanimous act on the part of Deity, called his "love" or 
"grace." 

But Paul went further, urging that a thorough recon- 
ciliation or at-one-ment with God is had by the cutting off of 
individual sins, especially called ''lusts of the flesh"; a 
subject which the political trend of the teachings of Jesus 
required him to subordinate. Paul's doctrines therefore 
demand, not only the belief in Jesus as the sacrifice for the 
general curse, but also a sacrifice of the natural propen- 
sities, called the carnal nature, as a response to the sacri- 
fice by Deity of his carnal nature or incarnation. By these 
mutual concessions or sacrifices Evil can be overcome. A 
"God-man", or meeting of the divine and human in one 
form, is the appropriate type of this at-one-ment ; and a 
"good-man" is the best earthly representative of the double 
condition. As a guide to this kind of life Paul specifies 
many moral and social obligations. The curious historic 
dogma and the expiation of it are thus knit with a moral 
code; so that by belief in a mystery we are supposed to be 
assisted along a path of good to ourselves and to others, 
since the mystery points to a life of self-sacrifice ; while 
the story of Adam's disobedience, by throwing the blame 
of the introduction of sin upon mankind, should cause them 
to strive the more earnestly not to sin by violating priestly 
instruction. 

And this explanation or dogma has the far-reaching tend- 
ency of welding together the Jewish and Christian his- 
toric chains, since a teaching from the former of a doctrine 
so wonderful implies other such ; and hence Christianity is 
freighted with much that both experience and science 
irreconcilably antagonize; nay, with atrocities which the 
most devout zeal must find repulsive, ordered or sanction- 



174 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

ed by an ideal of Deity wholly at variance with the gen- 
erous lessons we learn from Jesus. Certainly, it must 
be said that it is the prophetic books which are the greater 
bond of the two religions and the two literatures, and that 
is the whole theory of the Gospels ; and yet we might, but 
for Paul's dogma of Adam's sin, have only had these 
prophetic books as sacred, and the historic parts as mere 
annals, without religious significance, since there seems a 
large balance of reasoning against their having any. 



CHAPTER X. 

SABBATH AND THE PASSOVER. 

AS the Canaanites had ideals of Deity much in common 
with those of surrounding peoples, so we may look to 
the festivals and " solemn assemblies " of these neighbors 
for any necessary explanation of those recorded in the 
Jewish writings. Certainly, the origin and significance of 
such practices cannot now be made wholly clear, but human 
nature was much the same then as now, and much is to be 
interpreted of their practices and rites by understandings 
of those of our own time. The vice of our accounts of the 
religions of the ancients is that we hold a given name of 
Deity to a too rigid identity with some celestial or terrestrial 
object or phenomenon, which was taken by them as a 
symbol, or at worst a form of manifestation, for they were 
possessed of as much abstract or metaphysical capacity as 
the moderns ; of whom it w^ould not be true to say that a 
lamb painted on a cathedral window meant that the devotees 
worshipped an idol or a beast. Perhaps no religion, how- 
ever primitive or crude, can be truthfully said to have based 
itself on a visible god ; that is, one who could be rendered 
visible at any time, and was thus deprived of the influence 
which secrecy and silent force lend to the mysterious. And 
this fact of mystery runs through the rituals of the festivals 
and "solemn assemblies." 

The most durable and notable of Jewish observances was 
Shabbath. This word is asserted to be different from Zaba- 
oth (trans, "hosts") but we think it more probable they 

(175) 



176 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

are idioms of the same original concept. The writings 
disagree as to its origin (Ezek. 20: 12,20; Ex. 20: 10; 
Deut. 5: 15), which is the more deplorable because of the 
vast importance of an observance which regularly deducts 
fifty-two days of every year from the pursuits of subsist- 
ance among a large minority of mankind ; but the Ezekiel 
statement, which we think the oldest, makes Shabb-ath-otha 
a mere "sign" {Aoth) whereby the Israelites should 
acknowledge Jehoah as their deity. We elsewhere herein 
remark upon the origin of this ordinance, but without any 
thought of being positive. That the observance was held 
four times during a lunar month apparently connects it 
with the Moon-god, who was the wise Thoth in Egypt, and 
Ezekiel's word might be Shabb-Thotha if we did not know 
his name was Tachuth. In classic story we find the 
seventh day of every month sacred to Ap-Ollo, whose old 
Roman name was Apelon (comp. the Apkel or '* tumor" of 
I Sam. 5:1; 6:4, &c.), and who was called by the Greeks 
Hebdoma-Genos or " born-weekly ", but who is identified 
with Abad-Adon (Rev. 9: 11), who seems the " serve ** 
{Ta-Abad-Un) theElohim of Mt. cHoreb (Ex. 3: 12), and 
the same as Ehieh-Ashar. It is scarcely permissible to be- 
lieve that the name of a "solemn-assembly" whose secular 
violation was punished with death (Ex. 35 : 2) could have 
come from the word " seventh ", for Shab-Iai {201 10) in 
this text is not the usual form of "seventh " {Shab-ae)^ and 
it will be seen that the word means other important things. 
If the celebration was restricted to one time of the year, the 
month Sheb-at (January-February), it could be assigned to 
the "old" {Shib) Sun or year, or retired Nile; hence the 
Seb of Egypt, father of Osiri, and hence Zab or Azab ("for- 
sake") and Zaba-oth ; the Chaldean word Asab (trans, 
"sitting", "resting" ; Heb. Skeb) sustaining the latter view. 
Zob is rendered " flowing ", "pining", and Zeeb is " wolf", 
and Baal Zeb-ub was god of Ekron (Acheron) ; and so 
A'Zib-ah (trans. " worship ") seems the female deity of the 



SABBATH AND THE PASSOVER. 1 77 

Jews (Jere. 44: 19) and a proper name ; perhaps same as 
Ai-Zeb-el or " Jezebel " from whom El-Ijah flees to Beer- 
Sheba, himself being Shib or Ti-Shib. If we say Shab- 
Bath, w^e may by metathesis have Bath-Sheba, daughter of 
Eliam {Olam, ''Eternal " ?), or El-Jam the *' sea-god ", wife 
of Aor-Jah or -lah, and whom David saw at the Ereb (trans. 
" eventide") when he Sheb at Jerusalem at the ti-Shub-ah 
of the year when the Nile subsides, or as Aor-Iah is slain, 
and Bath-Sheba, perhaps its seven mouths, possessed by the 
Sun or Egypt (2 Sam. 11: i, &c.), but the words "to battle" 
are not in the text ; but the story reminds us of the bull Zeus 
who carried off Eur-Opa, as Aur-Apa seems the feminine 
Nile, though usually supposed to be from Ereb or the 
"west" ; yet it seems the story of Ganymede, Persephone, 
&c. ; though Bath-Sheba may get her name from the 
Pleiades, the Ma-Adon-oth of cHim-ah (Job. 38: 31), which 
appear at the inundation season, and which suggest the 
seven Hathors or " fates " of the Egyptians as " goddesses 
of Chem " or Egypt. That Sheb-Bath may refer to a 
feminine divinity, in its origin, must recall the words of 
Pausanias (10: 12), that "the Hebrews beyond Palestine 
had a prophetess called Sabbe, * * * b^^ some say she 
was a Babylonian, others an Egyptian "; which in turn re- 
minds us of " the A-Zib-ah " (trans, "worship") to whom 
the Jews made cakes, &c. (Jere. 44 : 19), elsewhere (Ex. 38: 
8) "serving-women" {Zaba-otk) who "served" {Zab-u) 
and had Mare-oth (trans, "mirrors") or "visions," as 
doubtless had cHul-Ed-ah or " Huldah " who "dwelt" 
{Sheb-ath) in Mi-Shan-ah, perhaps " sleepless " (2 K. 22 : 8- 
20), whose name seems the " whole-testimony ", and who 
seems the same as Azabb-ea or " finger " of " the Elohim " 
(Ex. 31 : 18) to whom we are indebted for the tablets of the 
Ad-uth ; so that Har Sin-ai connects with Mi-Shan-ah, and 
with Ar-Sin-oe the mother of ^Esculapius, and with Sin-oe 
the nurse of Pan, and with A-Sen-ath the wife of Joseph, 
for Ta-Sen was the entrance to the Egyptian Hades, while 



178 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

it means in that tongue " the sister ", as Ta-Sen t-Nefer 
("the sister of the Good " or Osiri) was wife of cHar-Ur 
("Aroer-is") of the lesser triad at Ombos, and mother of 
Pa-Neb-ta; while Sheb-ak of the " crocodile '*(Egy p. ^-i^<?- 
5^^) -head was head of the first triad at Ombos, and at Ar- 
Sin-oe Strabo (17 : i : 38) found the sacred Suchoskept in 
great honor, for that reptile lies mummified in the mud of 
the Nile till that river begins to swell, and was believed to 
have no tongue, but the male was supposed to devour its 
young, as Saturn in the classic myth ; though in parts of 
Egypt the crocodile was much detested in later times, while 
the fecund Athor was his wife at Ombos, and the famous 
Chon-Su was their son, as he was son of Amen at Thebes. 
Saba-Zius (-Zeus?) was a name of both Zeus and Bacchus 
in Asia Minor, and the Sib-yl perhaps gave forth their 
oracles, while Zaba-oth (trans, "hosts ") is a title of Jehoah 
perhaps as lord of the "forsaken" {A-Zab-otk), to whom 
the Azob or "hyssop." When David fled from Ab-Shalom 
he found Ziba kind to him (2 Sam. 16: 1-4), and that he 
was active at the return; while Sheba (20: 1-22) the son 
of Bi-cHir-i ("in white", "in caves") wages war on David; 
hence we must suspect an opposite meaning for the two 
words, but the Egyptians having no " Z " offer us no clew 
there ; for we take the flight as a passage into Hades with 
Ittai or "vegetation" (comp. Isaiah 17: 10) as his com- 
panion ; but this Sheba is killed at A-Bel-ah of the house 
of Ma-Achah, which is the " flood from the house of the 
sister", and is perhaps the same as (Judges 7: 19 — 8: 21) 
Gidaon's pursuit of Zeeb to Abel Ma-cHol-ah ; though Beth- 
Barah suggests the house of the Baris or death-boat. Seba 
("wine", Isaiah i: 22) is also rendered "plenty", "abun- 
dant", and this would seem consonant with the fecund 
Athor or Asi, who wore a garment of " divers-colors " 
{Zeba) such as spoil Sisera was to take (Judges 5 : 30) ; 
and yet as Seb is the word for the hieroglyph of a " star " 
we must suspect the Egyptian god Seb or some feminine 



SABBATH AND THE PASSOVER. 1 79 

concept to represent the night, though the fact there is 
valuable that a star over a person means "worship" or 
•* adoration " ; to which must be added that the Egyptian 
word for *' seven " was Ephos, the Greek was Hepta, the 
Roman was Septa; none of them very variant from the 
Hebrew Sabae ; and Sa-Ephos would be a combined Egyp- 
tian word for the " flood-seven ", sustained by the name of 
the flood-goddess Sati as Setep, with the star Soth or dog- 
star on her head ; hence the number " seven " seems con- 
nected with the star of the inundation, or the seven-stars 
which appear at the time ; while the Hebrew word Jo- or 
lo-Seph may well be rendered "increase", and Suph was 
the Hebrew word for the Red Sea ; but we have here the 
points which show that the forms Seb and Seph were mere 
dialectic, and mean the same ; at the same time the word is 
connected with the September inundation, the filling of the 
seven mouths of the Nile, adoration, the seven fates or 
Hathors, &c. ; so that the Shabb-ath of the Jews may rep- 
resent that period of "rest" {Nach-Em) ^hioh the covered 
or submerged Egypt rendered arbitrary but certain, and 
upon which the fate of the future harvest depended. The 
story of Zar-Ephath-ah or Sar-Epta ( i K. 17: 9, &c. ; Luke 
4: 25) seems surely a phase of this drouth and flood story, 
and the location of it in Canaan seems only to allude to the 
probable shrine there of the bereaved Nile-goddess. On 
the other hand, Malach-ath Shebaa (i K. 10: 14), famous 
for wealth and wit, does not seem the feminine (Malach-ah) 
of "king ", but rather expresses a "kingly" or "prosper- 
ous" condition. Ruth (2: 14) was Sheba or "sufficed" 
at the barley -harvest, the close of which was perhaps con- 
nected with the feast of Shebu-oth (Gr. Pen Tach-os), 
about the 20th of May, which would be the 4th of Epiphi 
in Egypt, and in the Hebrew month Siv-An (Esav or 
"Esau"). 

A late concept of this Shabb-ath cult may find ex- 
planation in the Daniel (7: 9), whose Attik of days "did 



I So SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

sit" (Chal. Tib.ioxShib) in great majesty, while Chebar 
Ae-Nosh or " glorious man " came in Anan-i ("ships" or 
"clouds "), and was given Malach-eth (trans, "kingdom") 
or "work" (Ex. 20: 9), evidently the superintendence of 
mundane things. This idea of the past and venerable 
seems supported by the U-Sheb-tei of the Egyptians, which 
was an image of the deceased deposited in his tomb and in- 
scribed with his epitaph, and the word is said to mean "to 
tell " or "answer", and the image had a bag of seed and 
a hoe as if to provide for the deceased in the other world. 
The Latin word Sub or " under " would seem to show 
derivation from this concept of a concealed and subtle deity, 
and it seems to us probable that the institution we call the 
Sabbath is in memory of a sinister concept of God. 

That Nechem-Iah did not introduce this practice (Nehe. 
13: 15-22) might be inferred, but that he was perhaps the 
first who enforced it seems probable ; for we take it that 
the Pentateuch was prepared after his time, or shortly 
before, for it must seem strange that Shabbath is not men- 
tioned in the Ezra (comp. Ezra 3 : 3-6), which mentions 
other observ^ances whose violation was not punished with 
death. 

Pa-Sach or " Pass-over " might also seem to have been 
instituted by Nechem-Iah (10: 32,35,37). Probably the 
Ezekiel (45 : 18-24) gives the earliest form and mention of 
it, and has it repeated six months later, or about the ist 
of October ; thus identifying it with the feast of Succ-oth ; 
but the Ezekiel gives no historic origin for it as does the 
Exodus (12: 1-28), though written after the second temple 
(Ezek. 41: i). The Ezra (6: 22) implies that the observ- 
ance was due to Jehoah for turning the heart of the 
"king of Assyria", but as there was no king of "Assyria" 
(Assur) at that time we may suspect that king of "cap- 
tivity " {Assir) is meant, which would lead to the observ- 
ance as that to the dark Deity, though Assur and Osiri 
are sufficiently close. The Exodus explains the observance 



SABBATH AND THE PASSOVER. 



I8l 



in such way as to indicate that it commemorates some im- 
portant event. The martial guise, pretense of haste, and 
display of sorrow and alarm, with which it begun, point to 
a crisis, out of which came a satisfactory result. The 
general Spring festival has been suggested, and barley- 
harvest, but this could not well apply at Jerusalem, and 
there could not well be alarm over a Spring festival. It 
was observed in the month Nis-an, a name of the month in 
use from the Tigris to the Mediterranean ; but called Pa- 
Shons in Egypt; suggestive of the Latin Passio and Greek 





(Fig. 1.) 



(Fig. 2.) 



Fatach-Sekar-Osar of Memphis, representing the divine child, with the Chepher or 
scarabeus on his head, with doves on his shoulders, and Isis and Nephti on 
either hand. Figure 2 is the reverse, and shows the soul or spirit. 

Pasgoi (Pa-Sag?), which words mean "suffering", but 
which Greek word seems Pa-Sach. The Latin Sicco, "dry ", 
and the Greek Sik-chos, "nausea", "loathing", are also 
suggestive, and so the Arabic Shak-ala, "to tie by the feet", 
as one who "halts" {Pa-Sack) or is "lame" {Pa-Sack) in 
the Hebrew (i K. i8: 21 ; 2 Sam. 4:4; 5: 6, 8). Pa-Shaa 
is Hebraic for "transgression " or " f alien-away " from God. 
Pi-Shon (Gen. 2 : 11) is understood to be the Nile, perhaps 
the White Nile, and Pa-Shen is the Egyptian word for 



1 82 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

** lotus ", their favorite flower, and the emblem of re-birth, 
as well as of the ** child-god" {cHar pa-c Herat) who was 
born lame, but whose birth was celebrated at the winter 
solstice, while the "delivery of Isi-s" of her elder son 
cHor-us was a festival about the time of the vernal equi- 
nox, which is so nearly the 14th Nis-an as to make it very 
probable that Pa-Sach or the "suffering" or " passion" was 
that of her travail, but which of course is merely that of 
Earth. The Pi-Shena-im (tr. "double-portion") of Ruach 
which Eli-Shaa asked of Eli-Jah seems a reference to this 
subject; though the Egyptian definite article Pa (the vowel 
is not to be considered) is also the word for " Heaven " and 
for "abode", and hence one must be careful in construing 
it ; and yet Pi-Shena-im seems to identify Eli-Shaa with the 
Egyptian lotus-god, who was also cHar-cHat (" Har-Hat"), 
whom the Greeks identified with Apollo. The idea of 
lameness attached to cHar-Pa-cHerat seems that of helpless 
infancy rather than that of deformity ; and at Memphis 
Patach-Osiri-Sekari is represented as this milk-fat child, 
though Pa-Tach ("Ptah ") the name of the patron-Deity of 
Memphis was not a child, but for some reason was iden- 
tified by the Greeks with the lame Vulcan or Hephaestos, 
and we have him in Hebrew literature as le-Pethach 
("Jepthah"). That Mosheh was Cheb-ad of speech (Ex. 
4: 10), and his mother was lo-Chebed, and Phara-oh was 
Chebadov lo-Chebad {\.rQ.ns. "hardened") of heart, all seem 
allusive to this deformity, though we take Chebad to be 
"Egypt", the Arabic Keb-ti; and so Ai Chabod (i Sam. 4 : 
21), not "Ichabod", was son of Lal-ath (v. 19), or "near- 
to-be-delivered ", and born when the ark was Nil-ak-ach or 
"taken", and that Ai ("woe") is the child-god, called also 
Ahi in Egypt, makes the use of the Greek prefix for a 
Hebrew word as rendered in the translation seem unpardon- 
able. It may be that the lamed Ja-Kob also represents this 
word, as the "lame" {Pa-Sach) Me-Phib-Sheth or Mephi- 
Bosh-eth represents the child, but it is scarcely questionable 



SABBATH AND THE PASSOVER. 1 83 

that the Latin Cupid is the same as this Chebad, for the 
Greek name for him, Ero-s, is the Eiro or **Nile" of the 
Copts (Heb. Aor or I-Eor), and Psyche seems merely a 
feminine Pa-Sach (Pa-Sach-ah) ; and this leads us to point 
out that Khebi was the Egyptian " shade" of a man, seem- 
ingly'- distinct from his ''soul" {Ba), but suggestive of the 
Chaldean Shak-Ul, which was an attending and smaller 
person represented alongside the figures of their gods, and 
this Khebi or "shade" seems compatible with the usual 
rendering of the Hebrew Chebad as "glory ", "honor", as 
one might say "halo", " aureole." 

Nis-An, the month in which Pa-Sach is celebrated, is 
said to be from Nts, a "flower." Nis is the "standard" 
or " pole " on which Mosheh placed the brazen-serpent. 
Nes is also "hawk", and Nezar or Neshar is rendered 
"eagle", but in Egyptian Nessar means "flame." The 
sense of " lif ted-up " seems in Hebrew to be expressed by 
Issea, of which Nesha seems a form. Hence Nis-An, the 
first month of the Jewish year, seems the expression of a 
revivification or re-birth, and that seems quite what the 
travail of Isi meant. The month Nisan (Egyp. Pa-Shons) 
in Babylonia was symbolized by the Accadians as Bora 
Ziggar or "demi-urge altar" (Heb. Bera, "created". Gen. 
1:1), but the Pur-at was likewise the Bur-at, the Greek 
Eu-Phrates; whence may come the Hebrew Ber-ith or 
" covenant ", Beer or " well " of water, Bar-uch or " bless- 
ed ", and even A-Br-am or " Abram " and Abera-im or 
"Hebrews", since I-Berak is a Chaldean word rendered 
" immortal ", which word might well have been applied to 
the river, as it was truly a Bara or demi-urge to Chaldea in 
the month Nisan. 

Pa-Sach in Egyptian is "the Sach" (masculine). But 
the word Sach or Sek and its variations have so many 
meanings in both Egyptian and Hebrew that this name of 
the observance is difficult to define, while in Accadian Sak 
was "chief" or "leader'*, and in Chaldaic was a "veil", as 



l84 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

a Sakur was "enclosure'', and Shak-ul was the attending 
daemons or souls of the gods ; so that Me-Shak, or our fam- 
ous word Me-Siach, is Chaldean " water- veil" ("screen", 
Ex. 35: 12) or "covering", and would serve well as a 
name of the Spring inundation of the Euphrates, which 
would suit well with the " Mi-Shech ye" (Ex. 12: 21), not 
" draw-out ", perhaps "cover yourselves" or "anoint ye" 
(comp. Ruth 3: 3), or "consecrate yourselves", as no 
doubt the Chaldeans used libations on the occasion, " the 
Sek" or "pour-out" of the Jeremiah (44: 17), the Mi-Me- 
Sech or "mingled- wine" of the Isaiah (65: 11), &c., and 
used oil and wine to anoint their Me-Shech (trans. " mol- 
ten") symbols of the "cup-bearer" {Ma-Sek-ak) river; and 
so at Jerusalem the observance might well have originated 
in memory that the Ma-Shek-ah Nechem-Iah (Nehe. 2:1) 
in the month Nisan had leave to build that town, or when 
on the 1 2th Nisan Ezra (8 : 31) departed on the same mis- 
sion; and Sechara is the Chaldean word "return" as used 
when the birds were sent from the ark to find dry land, while 
Sekeri is Hebraic for " strong-drink ", Sachar is "drunken", 
Shach-ah (i Sam. i: 3) is "worship" and Shech-ath is 
often used for "destruction" or "corruption." 

But Pa-Sach seems the Egyptian word ; nor could it have 
been well applied to the inundation if it was celebrated 
there in the month Nisan or Pa-Shons, since that is the 
dry season; the barley being ready to cut the ist of March, 
and the wheat about the ist of April or at the time of this ob- 
servance ; and the Latin Seco, " to cut ", gives us the " sickle " 
(Latin Sicula; Gr. Zaikle) ; while cHiten, the Egyptian for 
"threshing," responds to the Hebrew cHitt-ah ("wheat"), 
but Kezir is Hebrew for " harvest " and " reaper", and from 
Kezir comes the surgical word mis-spelled " Caesar-ian " ; 
and in this connection we may note that in Sic-il-y the 
myth of Ceres and her lost child Proserpina was located. 
A harvesting might represent the delivery of Isis considered 
as Cer-Es or Mother-Earth : and the Greek word P-Isis 



SABBATH AND THE PASSOVER. l8$ 

(Py3is) or "nature " would seem to be "the Isis", but the 
statement that our word " Phy-Sic " comes from the Greek 
Pysis seems strained unless she was connected with Pa- 
Sach ; yet it is worth noting that the Chaldean goddess 
Ishtar (A-Shetar-eth) was also called Suk-Us, though she 
seems rather to connect with the wine-harvest festival of 
autumn, called by the Jews Succ-oth, when Egypt was 
** hid" (^Shetar) by the inundation as by "booths" (^Succ-oth) 
or a "tabernacle" {Mi-Shechan). 

The word Shak in Egyptian is rendered "deprive"; and 
Pa-Shak would be "the deprived." The Shech was also 
the broad collar or necklace with hawk-heads at the ends 
which Osiri wore. Sak is also the name of an unnatural 
figure of a quadruped which resembles a fat " sow " (Egyp. 
Sou). Sachas was a " wild-ox " and Sachat was a "hare." 
Perhaps the most significant application of the word Sach- 
ath was to a sea-ship, perhaps because the sea absorbed the 
Nile, or that pirates ravaged the coast; hence the evil 
goddess Shech-ath of the lion-head at Memphis may have 
represented the sea, which was detested by the Egyptians. 
That the sacred crocodile was called E-Me-Sech (Strabo 
says Such-os) may have some connection with it as a type 
of the Nile-child, who is always with his finger on his lips, 
for the crocodile has only the rudiment of a tongue; 
though the crocodile-headed Seb-ak is said to be a solar 
type. 

Pa-Sach was made by the Jews to end cheerfully, yet 
seems a propitiatory observance, at which Sa-Aare Azz-im or 
"he-goats" were daily sacrificed (Ezek. 46: 23), and there 
is no reference to the Shah or "lamb", which word we sug- 
gest should be Shach, though Siu is "sheep" in Egyptian. 
This conflict of statement is further affected by the Exodus 
(13: 4; 23: 15; 34: 18; Deut. 16: i), which places the 
observance in the month Abib, which we suspect to be Ab 
(July-August), the Chaldean Abu, Assyrian Ab; which 
would be the month Thoth in Egypt, and the first month, 



1 86 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

when the Nile begins flooding, and there is uncertainty 
whether or not the rise will be beneficent or deficient or 
excessive ; hence the haste and anxiety ; for Abub is the 
word used for the flood or "water-spout" in the Chaldean 
story of the Deluge ; and these deluge myths are merely 
the annual inundations or some excessive one of them. 
And the Egyptian festivals of "the rising of Sot" ("dog- 
star"), "the rising of Sekar", and the festivals of Thothor 
Ta-cHut occurred at this summer season, though we do not 
speak advisedly that this was true of the second of these ; 
and the lamb, or " ram " (^Aail) in the case of Abram's son, 
was at the several towns either a child or virgin or some 
substitute for them, exposed to the inundation, as seems 
from the Aail-eth of the Sa-cHar (Ps. 22:) or "blessed of 
the flood-god ", who was fearful of Sech-ath (trans. " cor- 
ruption") or the evil goddess of Memphis; and the Ma- 
Sach-Il or Ma-Sachil Dad (Ps. 32, 42, 44, 45, &c.) were 
possibly songs or liturgy connected with Pa-Sach, as Sach- 
01 (trans, "bereaved") seems a name for the sacrificed 
"child" (Gen. 43; 14; i Sam. 15: 33; Isaiah 49: 21; 
Jere. 15: 7;) or Ol or Aul; and so Toph-El is "prayer" 
and Tophel-Az-eth (Jere. 49: 16) and Pel-Az-oth (Job 21: 
6; Ps. 55: 5) are "horror", as Pel and Moph-eth are both 
" wonderful ", and Moph or Meph is " Memphis ", so that 
the "lame" or Pa-Sach Mephi-Bosheth seems scarcely 
more Hebraic than the mediaeval Mephis-Tophel-Az of the 
cloven-foot, while Peres and Maph-Eris (Lev. 11: 3, 4, 7) 
seem to mean both " cloven " and " hoof" ; and it is curious 
that Jakob's strained " thigh " (^Jerich or lericK) seems con- 
sonant with the Athenian Erich-Thon of the serpent legs, 
as his "strained" {Tek-Aa) or "fastened" thigh or foot ' 
connects him with Mene Tek-el of "cloven-foot" (^Peres)^ 
as his Aal-ah the Sachar (trans. " day breaketh ") at this 
wrestling also seems significant. " The Th-Ope-eth " (2 K. 
23: 10; Jere. 7: 32; 19: 6) at Jerusalem, " in the valley of 
the son of theNom" (Ch-Num), to whom children were 



SABBATH AND THE PASSOVER. 1 87 

sacrificed, confirms this, as Ape-T or Ta-Ape was the terri- 
ble Th-Aur, the "hippopotamus" (Egyp. fem. Ape)-god- 
dess, concubine of Shet or Typhon, for which name the 
Greeks were indebted to her, as Te-Apo seems the same, 
while both Aur or Th-Aur and Th-Ape (Hapi) seem the 
feminine Nile-flood ; but " the son of the Nom " or Ch- 
Num was different at different places; Ch-Num himself 
being usually husband of Sa-ti ("the inundation"), while 
in Greece we have Heracles wearing the skin of the Neme- 
an lion ; and Ap-Ollo was there locally called Norai-on, and 
he kills Coron-is (Acheron-is?), perhaps the "horned", 
because she intrigues with I-Sach-ys, Strabo's Such-os or 
sacred crocodile, for at Apollinopolis he says they are " at 
war with crocodiles" (17: i: 38, 47), and yet in Lacede- 
monia Apollo had the name Sciastes, which may be Sachi- 
Sat-es or the sacred-flood itself, as Api-Aalu seems the 
" blessed-Nile ", to whom the Halle-lu at Pa-Sach, and the 
original of the four Apollos was son of the Egyptian Vul- 
can, Pa-Tach (not "Ptah") of Memphis, which latter as 
demi-urge was much the same concept as Ch-Num the Ma- 
Shek-ah or Ga-Nym-ede; but Ch-Num's name Ch-Neph 
perhaps went to form the myth of Nep-tune, whom the 
Greeks called Pos-Eidon or Apis-Adon ; and he disputed 
with Hera for Argos, and Ph-Ron-eus (the Aron?), father 
of Apis and Niobe, with I-Nach-us, Ceph-Isos, and A-Sater- 
ion were umpires, all of whom bear good Hebraic names. 
In this connection it may be noted that the shape of ancient 
galleys perhaps was suggestive of the " goose " (Latin 
Anser, Span. Ganzd), emblem of Seb, but sacred at Rome, 
where the Egyptian Chon-Su seemed to have a close rela- 
tion with Nep-tune as the Consu-alia shows ; while the 
" swan " (Latin Cygnus ; Gr. Kyknos) is consonant with 
Sechan-(us) or Mi-Shechan, and Cygnus was severally son 
of Neptune and Mercury and Stenelus (Satan-El?), and as 
Cygnus or " swan " Zeus begat the Dio-Secur-i (" Dioscuri") 
or divine-life of the Sichor or Nile ; and so at Troy was 



1 88 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

^-Sak-us who became the " didapper ", the Greek -^zMwr, 
and Latin Merg-us, whence perhaps Mercury ; but Neptune 
or Pos-Eidon was father of Nile-us by Tyr-o, whose name 
may be that of Athor or the fierce Th-Aur, and by Niobe's 
daughter he had Nestor ; so that the connection of Neptune 
with the Nile-cults is close. So, Eri-Sich-thon, who warred 
with Ceres, can scarcely be other than the Aur-flood ; as 
Scir-on was a famous robber, evidently Sachar-on, and his 
wife was daughter of Cycher-eus. The town Lampasakos, 
however, seems to present the name itself, as it is perhaps 
Elohim Pa-Sach or the Aolam ("eternal") Pa-Sach; and 
the deity's name there was Priapus, known in the classics 
as guardian of flocks and fruits and vineyards, as Pa-Arep 
is Egyptian for " the wine ", and Jehoah says he is Ropha 
or "healer" (Ex. 15: 26), though the Egyptian "vine", 
Areru (Heb. A-Neb), or "boar", Reru, msiy give us the 
Hebrew word " cursed " {Aruer) ; and yet we must not 
regard Priapus as the satyr figure of the later Greeks, but 
perhaps as the wise concept ^sculapius, and in Hebrew 
Sachal is both "wise" and "foolish", as well as "cluster" 
and "bereaved" (^Eshcol) ; and the wine or grape harvest 
in Egypt was in the month Epiphi (Coptic Abib), which 
began the latter part of June in later times. 

While Sach or Sek and the forms of these often seem to 
indicate suffering of some sort, just as the Greek Sak-os 
was " a cell ", " darkness ", it mUvSt be noted that Earth was 
sterile, and there was no Sich (trans. " shrub ") or Aa-Seb 
(trans, "herb"); then Ad Aal-ah (trans, "a mist went- 
up"), perhaps a "hand" (^lad) as in supplication, though 
Ad or Aod is rendered " firebrand " (Isaiah 7:4; Zech. 3 : 
2 ; Amos 4 : 11), and this " the Shek-ah " (trans. " watered ") 
the land, whereupon Adam was formed out of " dust " ; but 
as there must have been dust before this " the Shek-ah " 
(a feminine form) probably means " drank ", as in a num- 
ber of cases, and in the sense of " dried " or " drew-out " 
(Ex. 12 : 21) or " consecrated " or " anointed " ; and this 



SABBATH AND THE PASSOVER. 1 89 

■would accord with the separation of the land from the water 
or inundation ; but as Ethiopia or Cush came down as far 
as the First Cataract, and seems to have been a very- 
civilized country, we must note the important fact that 
Sheku, the personal pronoun " Him " or " He " in their 
language, may be the controlling sense of this word, and 
Strabo says (17 : 2 : 3) the Ethiopians regarded God as one 
being who is immortal, the cause of all things ; another, 
who is mortal, a being without a name, whose nature is not 
" understood " ; hence, if he had no name, he must have 
been referred to as " He " or " Him " {Sheku) ; so that when 
Mosheh says (Ex. 12 ; 21) Ma-Shek-u (trans. " draw-out ") 
and Shek-ah is rendered " watered ", and Ma-Shek-ah is the 
" butler " of Pharaoh whose head is " lifted up " or Issea, 
and Shak-Ul was in Chaldaic myth the equivalent of the 
Hebrew Me-Siach or divine messenger, and P-Syche is 
Greek for " butterfly " and " soul ", we seem to get nearer 
to an explanation of Pa-Sach, who makes the Sich or 
"shrub" grow, but whose cult became Shik-Az or 
" abomination " to the Jews because represented perhaps by 
a " goat " {Az) or the " tree " {Az) into which the coffin of 
the murdered Osiri grew, which was a " tamarisk" (Egyp. 
Asar ; Heb. Eshul), though Nar was the special tamarisk of 
Osiri, and in Chaldaic Nar (Heb. Nakar) meant ** river" ; 
while Sek-Ari, if we allow the Ari ("maker") of the 
Egyptian, would give us Shek- or Sek-Ari as " He the 
Creator " or demi-urgos, and Pa-Sach would be " the He " 
as a double-definite for the Divine Name which could not be 
uttered save to the initiate at the mysteries, when knee was 
to knee, heart to heart, mouth to ear, since no name of him 
could to the vulgar express more than an attribute or mu- 
tilated idea of " Him " ; and so Jakob received the word by 
a touch on his "knee " {Bar-tcch) when he asked Baruch or 
"blessing," though "in Caph-Ieyich-o'' (trans, "hollow of 
his thigh") seems something in "secret" {Cepk) ; but the 
word lerich or Jerich curiously connects with the Orphic 



igo SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

trinity (Cory, "Ancient Fragments", p. 355), Metis 
C' will") and Phan-es or Eros (" light " or " love ") and 
Eric- Apse-US (''life*' or "life-giver"), which Herodotus 
says Orpheus got from the Egyptian mysteries, but which 
initiation enabled Jakob to see the " face " (^Phani) of Esav 
at Penu-El, which Phan-es is perhaps expressed by Phe- 
nomena or the visible work of the Orphic demi-urge called 
Phan-es, from which word came the bird called Phen-ix, the 
Egyptian Ben-u (Heb. Ben "brother") as well as Phenicia, 
as this mythic creature was the soul of Osiri or his intelli- 
gent manifestations ; as Phenich was also the " palm " in 
Greek, the Egyptian Bai {Ba, "soul ") ; and that the Ethio- 
pian " He " or " Him " {Seku) was Osiri the Greeks testify 
by saying the former had two deities, Jupiter and Bacchus, 
and they identified Bacchus with Osiri. So, the Shi-Shak 
(i K. 14: 25-26; see the priestcraft of the 2 Chr. 12 : 2-12) 
who came against and plundered Rechoboam seems the 
river Zerach (2 Chr. 14: 9-15) or the ruddy Nile of Ethiopia 
in an evil humor, so that the later priesthood reward the 
pious Asa (i K. 15: 11-15) by letting him defeat a billion 
Ethiopes ; for the red flood comes in judgment or as 
Rechoboam's typical scorpion (Heb. Akarah ; Gr. Sk- 
Orphios; Latin Sc-Orpio), and the hieroglyph "scorpion" 
is called Seth. 

The young saint Joshi-Ehu or " J^osiah " is identified with 
Pa-Sach (2 K. 23 : 22), called Obed-ah or "observance" ; 
a word which suggests Abyd-os as well as the languishing 
white-Nile or Obaid. It is claimed that he revived Pa-Sach 
after five centuries of dis-use, though the books Jeremiah 
and Zephaniah, avowedly contemporary, are silent as to 
this ; while the zealous Chronicler (2 Chr. 30 ; 21-26) has it 
that some eighty years before Josiah a Malech called 
" Hezekiah " or cHezeki-Ehu or -lah observed it, and that 
Shelomeh also did ; but the silence of the Isaiah and the 2 
Kings as to this conduct of cHezekiah, and that of the con- 
temporary Hosea and Micah, seems unfortunate. Probably 



SABBATH AND THE PASSOVER. I9I 

Josiah typified the observance, as he seems the Ha-Dad 
Rimmon worshipped at Megiddo (Zech. 12: 8-14; 2 Chr. 
35 : 24-25), and at 'Ar-Magiddon (Rev. 16 : 16) he was to 
be avenged ; and Rimmon or Ra-Amen is the " ram " or 
"lamb " phase of Deity, or Isaiah's (65 : 16) El-Ohe Amen, 
while Je-Did-ah w^as Josiah's mother. And Herodotus (i : 
159) confirms the account of a battle at Magdolus, saying 
Nech-os there defeated the Syrians ; but here arises the 
curious complication that (Ex. 14: 2-31) it was at Migdol, 
before Ba-Aal Zephon " over-against " (^Nich-acho) y that the 
lad Gedol-ah (trans, ''work great") or "hand great" over- 
threw Pharaoh, though the use of Pi-ha-cHir-oth or " mouth 
of the caves" suggests the "bull" (Heb. Phar) of Mith-Ra, 
sacrificed at the mouth of the cave, or (Ex. 29 : 11-14) the 
mouth of the Ohel or " tent " as a sin-offering, for the 
month which precedes Nisan was the Egyptian Par-Muthi, 
which in Hebrew would mean the " bull-dead ", for the 
death of Apis or the sacred bull was a season of great grief 
in Egypt even when his age of twenty-five years required 
him to be killed; but the Aail (Ex. 29: 18-21) seems a 
"child" {Aol-ak), not "burnt-offering" save in that sense, 
of savour Nich-ocha to Jehoah, or a substitute for a child, 
and young lo-Shi-Ehu may suggest the Shah or " lamb " 
slain at Pa-Sach, with Ehu as the wail of grief. At Mount 
Kitheron or Cither-on in Greece there was perhaps a yearly 
observance of the death of Pen-Theos, or the " afore-God " 
as a Greek might have understood it, for Pan nursed 
Bacchus, and in the Bacchae the old year is torn to death 
for the new, as Euripides relates, and Kitheron may get 
name from the cHeten (Egyp. "threshing") or the cHitt- 
ah (Heb. "wheat") -harvest ; and the greater Dion-Ysea 
(Adon-Issea) or " god-renewing " was celebrated at Athens 
in March, or at the vernal equinox, as was " the Delivery 
of Isi ", and the name Eu Sat-ai applied to it seems some 
reference to the victory over Shet or the inundation. The 
story of the seizure by David of Bath-Sheba, the murder of 



192 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

Aor-Iah by placing him in the Mul Pan-i (trans. " fore- 
front ") of the battle, the death of the child on the seventh 
day, the refusal of David to eat till that time, the Sech or 
" anoint " of himself when the trial is over, seem to illus- 
trate the Pa-Sach. And so Jereboam's son (i K. 14: 1-18), 
who was much mourned ; for the sickly white Nile appears 
in April in a rise of two feet, but lingers on till July when 
supplanted by its red brother from Cush. 

The cup of Hallel or cHal-El drunk at this festival is not 
mentioned in these Hebrew accounts of it, though it seems 
the Meni Mi Me-Sach or " fill-up mingled- wine " of the 
Isaiah (65 : 11) was probably at Pa-Sach. Paul (i Cor. 10: 
16) calls it the "cup of blessing" (Heb. Baruch). But 
Shachar or Sachar (trans. " drunken "), as Noach, Nab-al, 
and others, as well as the Sekari which Shimshon and John 
Baptist were not to drink, called " strong-drink ", perhaps 
refer to this sacra-mental cup or libation. Indeed there 
seems to have been a conflict over the adoption of this 
observance or its ritual features. The attack in the Amos 
(5 : 26) on Sicc-uth your king and Chiun (cHon-Su ?) are 
not clear, but the enemy of Jeremiah (20: i;2i: i;38: i) 
was Pa-Shachur, not " Pashkur ", son of Malach-Jah or of 
Aimer, overseer of Beth-Jehoah, and he perhaps personified 
the observance, as we hear nought of it in the Jeremiah, 
who tells Pa-Shachur he prophesies Shekar (trans, 
"falsely"), which of course means he represented an 
opposite worship. And yet, while the later Shikk-Uz or 
"abomination " of the Isaiah and the Daniel were the signal 
of revolt in the first century as well as with the Maccabees, 
we find Pa-Sach as an observance holding its own in the 
time of Jesus, as to this day. 

We advance these suggestions. Any solution we offer 
as to this observance is more honorable to the brave de- 
scendants of the Jews who defeated Antiochus, and who 
died by the swords of Vespasian and Hadrian, than the 
priestly device that six hundred thousand men able to bear 



SABBATH AND THE PASSOVER. 1 93 

arms (Num. i : 45, 46) ran awa}' from Egypt with stolen 
jewels; any should he accepted rather than that Jehoah 
directed this. 

That Pa-Sach seems called "Feast of the Ma-Zoth or 
Maz-oth" (Ex. 13: 3-10; 23: 15; 34: 18), rendered "un- 
leavened-bread", is perhaps due to a union of the two ob- 
servances, as the latter is clearly called a harvest festival. 
"Leavened bread" was called Chem-Ez. 



CHAPTER XL 

OTHER RELIGIOUS OBSERVANCES. 

THE injunction was (Ex. 23: 14-17; 34: 18-23; Ezek. 
45: 18-25) for three observances, but the Ezekiel does 
not provide for Shebu-oth. It was also called '* Feast of 
the Kezir " (Ex. 23: 16), which is rendered ''harvest", 
also " reaper ", and followed by Bi-cHura-i Ma-Ae-Shech 
or " first-fruits of thy labors " ; which Ma-Ae-Shek accords 
with the opinion we have expressed that Pa-Sach was per- 
haps formerly observed in the month Abib or Ab (June- 
July). The Shebu-oth took place the 6th of Sivan or 
about May 20, w^hich month Esav corresponded with the 
Egyptian month Epiphi (Coptic Abib) originally, and 
Herodotus (2: 153) says "Apis in the language of the 
Greeks means Epaphus," which Epaphus, also called Manes 
and Achor-eus, founded Memphis, and was killed by a 
hippopotamus, as Adonis by a boar. Pen-Tac-ost is another 
name for the observance, said to be Greek. That the 
names Shabu-oth and Pen-Tac-ost were given it because of 
its celebration of seven weeks or fifty days after the be- 
ginning of Pa-Sach is generally believed. If it came from 
the Egyptians it fell there at a very sultry season, during 
drouth and dust, when the Sim-oom occasionally annoys, 
and the frequent "whirlwind" {Zeba-ak as now called) of 
sand is a moving "pillar" (Heb. Ma-Zeb-ak) or "circuit" 
{Sab-ab)^ five hundred to seven hundred feet high, while 
these are the result of the hot south wind called yet Kam- 
sin (Heb. Ckemesh-im^ "fifty") which blows for a period of 

(194) 



OTHER RELIGIOUS OBSERVANCES. 1 95 

" fifty " days, from April till June, and which might 
represent the fiery tongues of Pen-Tach-ost (The Acts 2 : 
2); and possibly to this wind was ascribed the languishing 
of the White-Nile, which begins its rise in April, but does 
not increase any for about three months, and hence is 
"face-bound", which in Hebrew would be Pen-Teka, and 
this would accord with Sheb-ath as "captive", as Job (42: 
10) "turned his captivity" (^Sheb Shab-ath),ior Job dwelt 
in Auz or Uas as the Egyptian Thebaid was called, and the 
White-Nile has long been called the Jeb-El or Geb-El 
(comp. Aob-il, "river", Dan. 8: 2, 6), wherefore the Aob 
or "familiar-spirit" which speaks ti-Shak or "low" out of 
the dust (Isaiah 29: 4), and to whom the "obel-isk" (Gr. 
Obeli-Skos or -Sakos), perhaps Hebrew Abeli-Sak or 
" mourning-sackcloth ", and to whom was given the A-Zob 
or " hyssop." 

Shebu-oth as "weeks" or "seven weeks" seems also to 
us as less tenable than to connect with the word the seven 
mouths (Herod. 2:17; Strabo 17: i : 18) which drain the 
Nile, and which may have given number to the seven 
Hathors or "Fates" of Egypt, as these in Phoenician or 
Hebrew may have given name to Sib-yls. We have, how- 
ever, spoken at length on the word Shab and its variations 
in discussing the observance of Shabb-ath. 

lom Chippur-im (" Yom Kippor") is rendered " day of 
atonements " or expiations. It was ordered to be observed 
about t«he time of the autumn equinox. Chepher is ren- 
dered "to propitiate", "bow-dow^n", "cover", "hairy." 
cHeph and cHeph-ah and cHeph-Esh (com. Greek Heph- 
aestos) are applied to the " covered " head of David, the 
"disguised" Sha-Aul, the "disguised" widow of Tekoa, 
&c. Cophar and Gopher are rendered "cypress" tree, 
which is deemed an emblem of sorrow at this day in the 
Orient. The Tebah of Noach was "Chaphar-eth with 
Caphar" (trans. " pitch with pitch"), while the Tebath of 
the infant Mosheh was " ta-cHemer-ah with cHemer and 



196 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

Zeph-eth " (trans. " daubed with slime and pitch) " ; but in 
Egypt the Chepher (Ch as K) or " scarabseus " (Gr. Skor) 
was only put usually on the outside of the "lid" (Cheppor- 
eth or "mercy-seat") of the coffin of the dead, and often 
on his breast, as it perhaps meant the body would rise 
again. The Beth-Chepor-eth of the Jews was the holy-of- 
holies or arcanum. Blood was sprinkled on the " lid " or 
"mercy-seat" {ChephoretK) at certain JewivSh sacrifices, and 
on it the two Cherubs stood with out -spread and sheltering 
wings. On the Egyptian entablatures the veil which con- 
cealed the ark bears on it the Chepher or scarab, and Scar- 
ab may be the Latin for " Sa-cHar-fly " as Ab is Egyptian 
for " fly " ; perhaps " fly of the Sichor ", in Hebrew phrase, 
as the last syllable in Ba-Aal Zeb-Ub is said to mean a 
"fly." Some Egyptian priests are also shown with the 
Chepher or Scarab on the breast of their long robes, and 
the insect is also represented with outspread wings uphold- 
ing a globe ; was particularly sacred at Memphis and Helio- 
polis, and is found embalmed at Thebes. The pigmy 
figures of Pa-Tach or Patach-Osiri-Sekari wear the insect 
in repose on their head, but the god Ka of the frog-head, 
who seems to represent Cha-os, wears it on his head in an 
upright position ; while there are figures of the deity Chep- 
her not only wearing it in that position on his head, but 
sometimes as wearing it as his head. Birch thinks this 
Chepher deity was a solar type, and Wilkinson says the 
Scarab was a type of demi-urge or maker, and of meta- 
morphosis. Certainly the connection of the day of Chip- 
pur-im with the autumn equinox or passing of the Sun 
would indicate that with the Jews the Sun was going or 
had gone into hiding, or that vegetation was, and this 
would coincide with the Egyptian observance of " the loss 
of Osiri ", save that at the autumn equinox the Nile is at 
full flood, and could not thus be lamented ; but in Egypt 
this famous observance had drifted forward with the im- 
perfect calendar till at the time of our era it fell on or 



OTHER RELIGIOUS OBSERVANCES. I97 

about the ist of December,* when the Nile had retired ; and 
yet had it been observed at the autumn equinox the grief 
would have been for Osiri drowned by Sheth or the flood, 
in which case Osiri would represent the land of Egypt, and 
this probably before the Nile was made beneficent by a 
canal system. It is not at all to be allowed, however, that 
the Jewish observances were otherwise than thus shifting 
or that their calendar was accurate. But, certainly, we 
must not look alone to the Egyptians for the similarity 
with the Jews of these religious observances, which were 
doubtless in substance the same from the Tigris to the 
coasts of Portugal ; yet in speaking of the goat to Az-Azel 
we find nought like it save in the Persian custom we have 
herein mentioned in speaking of that concept ; which, by 
the way, the Ezekiel does not mention, and which may 
have come in some time after Persian dominance. 

That lom Chippur, however, may mean also the Cabir-i 
would not conflict with what we have said, as only one of 
the brothers perishes, while the Cherubs also seem to rep- 
resent them, though in Egypt these were Isi and Neb-ti 
(Neph-thi) guarding the dead Oziri, as Mary and Martha 
guarded the dead El-Azari at Beth- Any or the house of the 
"appearance" (Egyp. Ouon or On or Unnu)^ since it was 
the former who cause two wives to Jakob, to El-Kanah, to 
Lamech, two daughters to Lot, Sarah and Hagar to Abram, 
&c. We take it that Kabir and the Gibbor-im, perhaps the 
Egyptian Kheb-t, a " shade " or geni or daemon (Heb. 
Kabor, "pit", "sepulchre") are perhaps forms of Chebar 
(trans, "glory", "glorious"), and the Gibbor-cHail or 
" mighty -man of valor" refers to the giants and demi-gods 
of a legendary time such as that of St. George and the 
Dragon, but based on physical phenomena, as the sleeping 
Sun or Earth or river after the year's work is done ; hence 

*The Egyptian year began July 20, and yet by not counting the 
extra six hours of each solar year they allowed their festivals to 
gradually move around the whole of the calendar. They had a 
regular and a vague year. 



198 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

the Jewish lom Chippur is of the like ideal and of the 
same family of names, and was a lament for the reposing 
giant or demi-urge, perhaps typified by the constellation 
Orion, the Egyptian Seh or Sech, whence the classic Dio- 
Sekar-i or divine Osiri-Sekari was converted into Dios- 
Kuroi or " divine-children " of the Greeks as representing 
both the living and dead phases of him who half the time 
was hidden behind the "veil", and so " the veil of the Me- 
Shek" (Ex. 35: 12). The twin brothers are connected 
with the cult of Mith-Ra, which passed from the Tigris to 
Rome, where it was the most formidable rival of Chris- 
tianity in the second and third centuries, and the Rig- Veda 
says Mith-Ra was "god of day", while his name was given 
in Persia and Cappa-docia to the same month as the Tishri 
in which lom Chippur is solemnized, and so (Ex. 29: 10), 
as in the familiar figure of the youth in the Mithraic figure 
sacrificing the bull at the mouth of the cave, we see the 
bull sacrificed at the door of the "tent" {Ohel). Nor need 
we understand else than this sombre ritual or worship of 
the dead Gibber or Chippur or Me-Siach when we read of 
the A-Chabor or "mouse" (Isaiah 66: 17), perhaps long 
identified as a name with the sacred Aron (i Sam. 6: 4). 
The feast of Succ-oth followed a few days later or we 
would now say the first days of October. It was also called 
the feast of A-Siph (Ex, 34: 22) or Jo-Seph, rendered "in- 
gathering"; while Succ-oth is rendered "tabernacles" or 
" booths " ; but these definitions are not to be taken as the 
only meaning. In the Nehemiah (8 : 17) the introduction 
of this observance at Jerusalem might be inferred, since it 
is there said it had not been practiced since the time of 
Joshua, and that was nearly a thousand years before, but 
this contradicts the Ezra (3: 4). Succ-oth is supposed to 
celebrate the vintage or grape-harvest ; and so the Oscho 
(Socha)-phoria at Athens is rendered "grape-bearing"; 
but from whom did the grape get its name or to whom did 
it give its name at this thanks-giving ? At the Greek cele- 



OTHER RELIGIOUS OBSERVANCES. 1 99 

bration (Plutarch, "Theseus") the people cried Ellel-eu- 
Jou-Jou, which is the Hallel-u-Jah or " Praise ye the Lord" 
of the Psalm (113 : i, &c.), sung as the Hallel; " the first 
of which confused sounds", says Plutarch, "is commonly 
used by men in haste, or at a triumph ; the other is proper 
to people in consternation or disorder of mind " (comp. Ex. 
12: 11) ; and he adds that they carried boughs in honor of 
Bacchus and Ariadne the daughter of Minos, "and sang of 
Eiri-Sione as the giver ", just as the Isaiah (52 : i) is found 
to sing '^Aori Zion" (trans. "Awake Zion"), and one can- 
not well doubt that this is a song to the Aor or " Nile-god- 
dess " for Ariadne {Aori-Adon-e) is good Hebrew for her 
title ; though it would also mean the " goddess of light ", 
which would fit well with the death of Ariadne at Nax-os 
or " Night " ; but another legend makes her the wife of 
Bacchus, that is Osiri, and hence she is Isi-s, whose tears 
for Osiri were the Nile-flood in one of these phases, and this 
occurs at the time Succ-oth and Oscho-phoria were observed ; 
and so Cicero identifies Ari-Adne with the Hades-queen ; 
but whether Zion or Sione applies to the zone or girdle of 
the goddess, or to her special name at Zoan (Egyp. Zan) or 
Tanis, or to her as mother of " sheep " or " flocks " (Heb. 
Zoan), or to her as Zan-ah or "harlot ", or Ama-Zon, &c., 
was perhaps a question of locality. 

We may connect Succ-oth with the Babylonian Suk-Uz, 
worshipped in Canaan (2 K. 17: 30) as Succ-oth-Benoth, 
and she may have given name to Shech-Em or " Shech- 
mother." Re-Bekah at the Shek-oth or " trough " seems 
the Bam-Byke (Persian Bumi-Baga-a, "Earth-goddess") or 
Hiera-polis goddess on the upper Euphrates, but as a 
waterer she seems Aphrodite or Eu-Purath, the Ephrath-ah 
goddess at Bethlechem ; and so Mosheh found his wife at 
the "Har-hat-im to the Shek-oth" or "the troughs to 
water " the Zoan or " flocks " (Ex. 2 : 16) ; while the first 
pair had "aprons" if cHag-Aor-eth does not mean the 
" feast " {cHag) of the golden inundation, such as Eli-Shaa 



200 



SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 



(Egyp. "blessed Sa" or "flood") could make when he 
"stretched" {le-Gehar or J-Eor) on Shun-Em's or the 
lotus-mother's child. 

The two accounts Strabo gives of the orgiastic festival 
Sacaea and its origins differ widely, but he leaves the 
impression that the Persian goddess Anait bore the name ; 
and he connects one of these accounts with a defeat by Cyrus 




Sechath or Sechat, the evil-goddess at Memphis ; with the cat or " lioness " (Egyp. 
Pachaf) head ; called also Bubastis, &c. ; but she carries the life^ign and the 

lotus-staflF. 

of the Sac-ae or Scythians (Sachith-ians), whose outlandish 
costumes were perhaps so imitated at this vintage festival 
as perhaps to have given name to the goddess ; while from 
Herodotus (7 : 64) it seems clear that Sc-yth and Sac-yth 
are the same word ; and the shrine Succ-oth on the Jordan 
was called Seytho-polis by the Greeks and Romans, or 
" city of Succ-oth," but their name gave rise to the improb- 
able story that the Scythian migration which destroyed 
Nineveh and the Assyrian monarchy, about B. C. 620, had 
originated the name of the place. The Chaldean or Accad- 



OTHER RELIGIOUS OBSERVANCES. 20I 

ian Suk-Uz or Suk-Ush seems the virgin Earth rendered 
prolific by the masculine Euphrates or by the Sun, since 
she is there connected with the month E-Lul (August- 
September) or the harvest season, and this name of the 
month was common to the peoples of west Asia, suggesting 
Hallel or AUel-eu, as well as Lal-atk (trans. *' ready-to-be- 
delivered") the mother of Ai Chabod (i Sam. 4: 19), as 
well as the " night " {Lil-ah) the time of fecundity ; and in 
the divine dynasties Suk-Uz is made wife of Geb-Il, also 
called Ish. But Ellel-El is still a joyful cry of Abyssinian 
women on public occasions, and perhaps we might look to 
their Sak-u ("He" or "Him") as the masculine of Succ- 
oth, the mysterious " She " or "Her," which in that case 
would be a name of Isi-s (comp. Herod. 2 : 61, 170; Strabo 
17: 2: 3); and so the Hebrew word Hua ("He" or 
"Him") suggests Je-Hoah. 

There were other holidays or festivals, but these are the 
more notable. The Pur-im is only mentioned as such in 
the Esther, and we mention the book elsewhere. It seems 
to be the rise of the Euphrates or Pur-ath, formed by the 
Pur-at and the Merad, both of which flow from Ar-Arat or 
Ur-Urad, and they begin their rise as the snows begin to 
dissolve in the month Adar. The Merad seems of like name 
with the Chaldean god Merod-ach and the Assyrian Nim- 
Merod, and hence Mored-ecai or Mordecai ; the Greek form 
being Mardocheos (2 Macca. 15: 36). The Jews of the 
country districts may have assimilated this Persian festival 
with the defeat and death of Nicanor at Hadassa, 13 Adar, 
B.C. 161 (i Macca. 7: 48-49; 2 Macca. 15 : 36), and hence 
in the Esther (2 : 13) the heroine is also called Hadasseh, 
which is feminine of the Greek Hades or Pluto ; and the 
Hellenized Jews of the cities may have devised the story to 
counteract its association with Maccabaios. The date of 
the book is evidently sometime about the middle of the first 
century, as Philo does not mention the story and Josephus 
does. The word Aph-Rodite seems to be the Euphrates, 



202 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

but in the story Esether or Hadass-eh seems to represent the 
lesser Pur-at, which was the Bath-Dod (trans, "uncle's 
daughter ") or " love" of its mate the Merad; but in most 
countries save parts of Greece the fecund goddess was the 
queen of Hades, and E-Sheter is the "hidden." It is prob- 
able that pains are taken in the story to identify her with 
the love-goddess and queen of Hades, to whom the " turtle- 
dove" {Tor) was sacred, and hence the Tor (trans, "turn") 
of Esether (2 : 12, 15) ; and she goes to the harem (2 : 16) in 
the month Teb-eth ; and hers was Esether's Mi-Sheth-ah (2 : 
18), &c.; at which point the story seems to have at first 
ended ; for as Mi-Sheth-ah she becomes the flood-goddess, 
the Nubian Sati ; and hence, as the story thus stands (i : — 
2: 18) it possibly connects with the story of Gid-Aon and 
Pur-ah (Judges 7:), and the choosing by the manner of 
" drinking " {Skith-oth) ; for of course if the festival was 
that of the rising Pur-at it must be very ancient. 

The rite of " circumcision " {Mol or Mul) seems to be de- 
rided in the Jeremiah (4 : 3-4 ; 9: 23-25). The practice was 
common to the Egyptians, Arabs, and others, and practiced 
in Australia and South America by the aborigines, but per- 
haps was not general among the Palestinians or even the 
Jews till a late date. The Ezra and the Nehemiah fail to 
notice it. The last six chapters of the Ezekiel, which per- 
haps contains the earliest draft of the Jehoist ritual and 
ordinances, seems clearly to show that circumcision was 
" nationalized " after the Captivity, as the uncircumcised 
had been ministering in the sanctuary up to that time 
(Ezek. 44 : 7-9). We have accounts of the j^outh of Shem- 
uel and Mosheh, written perhaps later than the foregoing, 
which say nought of this rite being performed on them ; 
but on the contrary Mosheh was not circumcised, and hence 
could not speak to Pharaoh (Ex. 6:12, 30). It seems to 
have been a "reproach (^Char-EpK) in Egypt (Josh. 5 : 9) 
not to be ; a word rendered " contempt " and " nakedness " 
Dan. 12:2; Isaiah 47 : 3), but also " autumn ", " winter," 



OTHER RELIGIOUS OBSERVANCES. 203 

Char and Mul both mean " cut-off." Probably the rite was 
a substitute for human sacrifices, as to Mol-och, or to the 
rain- or flood-god, of which the strange story of the Edom 
or " red" or " man " water (2 K. 3 : 4-27) may give us an 
idea, as Kir cHares-eth seems a shrine of the Egyptian 
cHorus or Horus (comp. Isaiah 19: 18) who was perhaps 
the same as Apollo Loxias, or the Lycae-an Zeus, to whom 
Pausanias (8 : 30) intimates that humans were sacrificed 
when an injurious drouth prevailed ; and the Bek-ir (trans, 
"eldest" son) of Me-Sha corresponds to Bach, Egyptian for 
" phallus." But the sacrifice of the Nile-child was perhaps 
to render the inundation normal, or neither deficient nor 
excessive; yet the cHoreb-oth Zur-im or " sharp knives " of 
Joshua may express this only on the side of cHoreb 
(''drouth"), unless Aar-Aloth (Joshua 5: 3), rendered 
"foreskins," also express the " Nile-highest." cHoreb was 
the place whence came Mosheh with his message to Pharaoh 
about the first-born, and his " lodging-place" or Mel-On we 
take to mean the " revelation" (Egypt. Un or Ouon : also 
"day") of "circumcision" {Mel), which, Mosheh disre- 
garding, Jehoah sought to kill him ; but his wife, seeing the 
danger, cut off with a Zer their son's Aar-El-oth, and said 
"That a^/TaM-^w" (or "sin-revealed") "tome"; and when 
Jehoah desisted she said " a cHath-An " (or "a revealed- 
sin ") " of bloodshed to Mul-oth " ;* which latter word sug- 
gests the Mul-itta of Herodotus (1:131, 199) to whom per- 
haps only sterile women went, as also the nurse Amal-Thea 
of Zeus, one of whose horns as a goat was the cornu-copia. 
Mil-e (Ex. 32: 29) is rendered " consecrate " as well as 
" filled " or " f ul-filled ", it would seem, and there were 
houses of or to Mill-Oa at both Jerusalem and Shechem ; and 

*In Hebrew cHeih means "fear" or ** terror", and hence the 
" Hittites " {cHitt-ith) ; and Anah is sometimes (Gen. 41 : 16 ; i Sam. 
9 : 17) used in the Egyptian sense, for in these two passages the 
words "answer" and Jehoah *'said" are both seen to be divine 
"revelations" ; so that cHath-An seems to us "terror" or "sir^" 
(Heb. cHatt-aih) " revealed " [not to be circumcised]. 



204 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

the rite must have been a sign of brotherhood among the 
Egyptians, perhaps a guarantee against violence from one 
another, since their custom of fetching home the phallus of 
their slain enemy may have been to show innocence of the 
death of an Egyptian ; for which reason perhaps David was 
required to bring back the Aaral-im of the Philistines. 
That it was done in honor or memory of the mutilated 
Osiri might appear from the Zer or Zur-im used by Zipporah 
and Joshua to eifect the purpose, and the houses to Mill- 
Oa may have meant him ; and it seems that in south Italy 
there was a giant or deity called Mil-o, certainly a phase of 
Hercules, for Heraclea or Sir-is (Strabo 6 : i : 14) was the 
old capital there, and Sar-is is Hebrew for " eunuch " as 
well as the name given by Pliny (5 : 9) to the blue- Nile or 
Azerak; this Mil-o being caught in a tree as Osiri was ; so 
that we suspect the word Mal-ach, Mol-och, and its forms, 
applied to the Tyrian Heracles, to be a name of Osiri, and 
he a personification of the Azer-ak or Siris to whom the 
Aar-Ol was sacrificed or "cut" {Mul), for Strabo says 
the river flows from a large lake called Psebo, now Zan-i, 
and " the Seb " was the father of Osiri, and so the Seb or 
"star " Siri-us or Sot indicated the fullness of the A-Zer-ak. 
That the Jews circumcised after the child had lived seven 
days, or a lunar phase, might tend to show that the Moon 
cult was involved, but it does not seem that any particular 
age was required in Egypt, at least to the time of puberty. 
That the rite was sanatory, and not religious, we cannot 
agree, no matter how wide-spread it has been found. 



CHAPTER XII. 

DATES OF THE HEBREW SCRIPTURES. 

IT must appear from what has been said, or from any 
other unbiased consideration, that the social and relig- 
ious institutions of the Hebrews, or the tribes and peoples 
of Canaan, were essentially in harmony with those of the 
nations around them; certainly till down to the days of 
Ezra, and we think to the epoch of Maccabeus. It seems to 
us that it was rather to the latter period that we must assign 
their literary productiveness, when " Zion travailed and 
brought forth her children " (Isaiah 66 : 8). How much of 
these originated within themselves, and how much is 
adapted from neighboring sources, would be better known 
had not the literature of Egypt, of Phoenicia, of Babylon, 
&c., practically or utterly perished. The hill fastnesses of 
Judea, her caves and rocks, like those of Greece, were more 
secure receptacles for treasures of this kind than open plains 
of more opulent regions. Of these latter, the few fragments 
which have survived, mainly by means of rock inscriptions, 
tend to impair the sacred while they tend to sustain the 
secular value of the Jewish writings. But that these writ- 
ings, some of which challenge our homage by their sub- 
limity, their pathos, their mysterious allusions, should be 
deemed as a whole a sacred series is a miracle more 
astonishing than any wonder which they set forth, since we 
are taught that they are divinely inspired, and that even the 
atrocities they record were divinely ordered in behalf of a 
people who are shown to have been polytheists, polygamists, 
snake-worshippers, idolaters; who burned their children 
as sacrifices, who butchered their foes to the last suckling 

child, and who honored traitors, assassins, and prostitutes 

(205) 



2o6 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

who served their interests. Happily for the Jews, and for 
the credit of humanity, these records were composed long 
subsequent to the incidents they perpetuate, though the 
lesson they inculcate, that any crime may be committed in 
the name or for the sake of God (Ex. 32 : 26-28 ; Deut. 13 : 
6-10, &c.), has been as potent and malign in the minds 
of Mohammed, Omar, DeBouillon, DeMontfort, Louis XIV, 
Bossuet, as in those of Caiphas, Nero, or Dioclesian. In- 
deed, the ritualistic portions of the Scriptures are ex- 
pressly denied as having been given as therein stated, and 
this denial is by an authority within itself, and of equal 
weight and sanctity with the other parts (Jere. 7: 21-23 »' 
comp. Isaiah i : 11-17) ; hence it might be urged, on a fa- 
miliar legal principle, that the secular narratives are alike 
fallible. Casual investigation, however, suffices to show 
that much of these writings do not pretend to be as ancient 
as many people believe. 

The positive claims of this literature are that the na- 
tionality (genealogy) and religion of the Jews are of great 
antiquity, and that they were, despite their vicissitudes 
and calamities, the particular people of God ; claims which 
others of the ancients were prone to set up. But, as to the 
antiquity of the writings, it must appear that passages 
occur in each of the books which even the uncritical will 
view as reducing them to more recent date than most men 
ascribe to them. Internal evidences of their dates shall be 
now briefly pointed out. 

In the Genesis the use of the word Sar-Opk (trans, 
''chief -baker") is to be taken in connection with the well 
known historic averment that Ptolemy I, who ruled Egypt 
from B.C. 323 to B.C. 284, introduced the worship of Sar- 
Apis against the wishes of the Egyptian priests; the "chief- 
baker" being "lifted-up" {Issea) to death, and Sar-Apis 
being deity of the under- world ; Herodotus not mentioning 
Sar-Apis among the deities of Egypt when he was there a 
century or so before. Then, mention of the Medes (10 : 2), 



DATES OF THE HEBREW SCRIPTURES. 207 

and of Kittim (Citium as chief town of Cyprus, lo: 3), are 
evidently subsequent to the time when these two peoples 
had come upon the historic stage, which as to the Medes 
was about B.C. 600. That the Genesis was written after 
the beginning of the regal times, say B.C. 1050, also appears 
(14: 17; 36: 31). Again, that Abraham and Isaac were 
forbidden to marry Canaanites (24: 3; 28: 1,6) could not 
have been known to their descendants even down to the 
time of Nechemiah (10: 29-30; Ezra 10:), and indicates 
that their story was written to illustrate the doctrine of 
exclusiveness which was established after the " Return." 
The further statement that "the Canaanite and Perizzite 
dwelled then in the land" (Gen. 12: 6; 13: 7),asthey did in 
the days of the Ezra (9 : i), seems meant to show that the 
patriarchs were adherents of Ezra's law of exclusiveness. 
Again, the attack on astral- worship (Gen. i : 14-18), on the 
serpent-cult or Mosaism (i : 24-30 ; 3 : 1-21), both of which 
existed during the exile, are further evidences of post-exilic 
authorship. The hands of the priestly theocracy are fur- 
ther shown (47: 26). To which must be added the utter 
lack of effort to conform the practices and creed of the 
populace and the kings to those set out in the Genesis and 
other books of the Hexateuch, unless this silence was meant 
to bring royalty into disrepute. 

The book Exodus stands for " an everlasting priesthood" 
(29: 9; 40: 14) such as was established or at least begun 
by Ezra and Nechemiah, about B. C. 440. The holiness of 
the seventh day, scarcely mentioned in the other historic 
accounts, and which Nechemiah (10: 31 ; 13: 15-22) seems 
first to have enforced, has a death-penalty attached to it 
perhaps by some one later than he (Ex. 35 : 2). So with 
the sacrifice to any god save Jehoah (22 : 20), which never 
could have been dreamed of even down to the time of the 
post-captive Jeremiah (44: 15-19 ; Judges 18 : 30), and the 
violation of which ordinance appears in every page of the 
annals. So, also, the law against false evidence and that 



208 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

against murder are not observed by David (2 Sam. 12: 31), 
or by Shemuel (i Sam. 15 : 32-33) ; or by Mosheh (Num. 
31 : 17), no, not by Jehoah El who gave these laws (i Kings 
22: 15-23; Deut. 7: 16). The command against lawless 
desire seems unknown to David (2 Sam. 11 : 2-27), and it 
would seem to Jehoah himself (Num. 31 : 35-40). The 
command against adultery (intermarriage or adulteration 
with other people), alleged to be a capital offense (Num. 
25: 1-18), was evidently unknown all along till Ezra and 
Nechemiah set up an ordinance against it, to which time the 
contrary was constantly practiced. 

The Leviticus also attests (26: 34, 43) its post-captive 
date, which passages seems written by the author of the 
Jeremiah (2 Chron. 36 : 21) ; and other parts (Lev. 26: 36, 
41, 44) are notices of the Captivity. The Per-Ush-im 
(whence Pharisees) or " separation " from other peoples 
(20 ; 26) is the achievement also ascribed to Nechemiah (9 : 
2); while the "crowning" of Aharon, "as Jehoah com- 
manded Mosheh ", is the priestly refrain, six times repeated, 
which shows the post-exile hierarchy. 

The book Numbers is among the later parts of the Hexa- 
teuch, as it widens the distance between Aaronites and other 
Levites, degrading the latter to mere servitude to the 
priests (3: 5, 9; 4: 17-20; 8: 19; 16: 10, 40; 18: 7). It also 
allows these priests, secure now in civic strength, to do 
murder when the law of Ezraite exclusiveness is violated 
(25 : 6-13), and emphasises this law (33 : 50-56). The pur- 
pose mainly of the book seems to be to glorify the house of 
Aharon or of Zadok, which was in power at Jerusalem be- 
fore the Maccabean dynasty, B. C. 160. 

The Deuteronomy (^Ellah Debir-im, trans. "These be the 

Words")* shows its post-captive date (28: 36, 41, 53, 63 ; 

* Debir is " word ", ** oracle ", " speech " ; hence Debor-ah ; but 
the word EUah, while occasionally translated *' these ", is also "god- 
dess", "tree", and Ealah is "leaves" (Gen. 3: 7) though in the 
feminine singular ; so that the A-Zibbea (trans, "finger") orSib-yl 
may be suspected by those familiar with classic story. 



DATES OF THE HEBREW SCRIPTURES. 209 

29: 28; 30: 3, 8). It is as fierce in Ezraic exclusiveness 
as an established fanaticism could write it (7: 1-6, 16-23; 
20: i6-i8). Portions (13: 1-5) seem taken from the Jere- 
miah (29: 8-19). Its Jhoah-ism sounds the lowest depths 
of theologic bigotry (13 : 6-18) and the utmost zeal for 
morbid exclusiveness (2 : 34; 3 : 6 ; 7 : 2, 16; 14: 21; 20: 
14, 16 ; 23 : 20). The book seems designed to accentuate 
this exclusiveness, as well as to concentrate the Jehoah 
worship at the Jerusalem temple (12 : 11, 14, 21 ; 16 : 5-6 ; 
26: 2). It acquaints us with the fact that the names 
Jehoah and "Jew" (Jehud) are the same (28: 10). 

The Joshua or Jehoshua purports to be the historj^ of the 
Israelites within about the period B. C. 1450- 1400. Its 
whole tenor is denied by the Judges (3 : 5-6 ; 11 : 26), by 
the Ezra (9: 1-2), and by other evidences. The horrible 
atrocities of the alleged conquest of Canaan, especially set 
forth in the loth and nth chapters, seem written merely to 
impress the teaching of Ezraic exclusiveness ; and this was 
not practiced even in the religious services till a thousand 
years later (Zech. 14: 21; Ezek. 44 : 7). The separation 
of Aharonites from the Levites (21 : 8-19) is believed to 
evidence late authorship ; and so allusions to what exists 
"unto this day" (6: 25; 8: 28; 9: 27; 14: 14; 15: 64; 
16 : 10, &c.). The last three chapters are especially Ezraic. 
There is, of course, no reasonable belief in events such as 
are told in the Joshua, and which antedate the fables of 
Troy's fall and of Rome's foundation by several centuries. 

The " Judges " {Shapkat-im) is valuable as a compilation 
and explanation of several local cults, though arranged in 
series or sequence for historic purposes. The country 
towns had deities and shrines of their own ( Jere. 3 : 6 ; 11: 
13) in the days of Jeremiah, and the Judges is a partial 
theogony of Canaan. Some Jhoavist Hesiod gives the ex- 
ploits and adds the vices of Cal-eb (tr. "dog") of cHebron, 
Je-Path-ach, Gid-aon and Abi-Melech of Shech-em, Shim- 
shon of Zor (Tyre), Ja-Aal of Kadesh, Debor-ah, Tanoth or 



2IO SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

Mizpeh, Echud, Sham -gar, Jair, Michah, &c., who are 
reduced to the rank of Shaphat. The Judges contradicts 
the supposed extermination of the Canaanites (i : i, 21, 29; 
2 : 1-5 ; 3 : 1-5), and thus incidentally impairs the whole of 
Jehoah's promises to Mosheh and the patriarchs, as alleged 
long after. In one place (t8: 30) the connection between 
Mosheh and Jehoah is practically ignored, though the 
shrine at Dan to A-Don-is, where the Pes- El (trans, 
"graven-image") or Apis-El must have been the calf- 
god (comp. I Kings 12: 28-30) or "the One" {ka-A-Chad) 
put there by Jereboam, with whom the Hebrew Adon-ai 
(trans. "Lord ") was doubtless fully identified before Ezra's 
time. The Judges as a whole seems free from Ezraic or 
hierarchic influence, and presents Canaan in a wholly differ- 
ent light from that of the Hexateuch ; but its stories are 
mostly of Har Ephraim or G-Ilead series, implying theoph- 
anies, as Eph-Raim seems to mean " double-sight" {Ra-ah; 
Gr. Orao, " to see"; Egyp. Roy " eye "), and so perhaps Pa- 
Haraoh as an Egyptian divine name, as Roeh was Hebraic 
for " seer " ; while the letter G in Gilead may be prosthetic 
as in Go-Morrha, G-Azzah, &c. 

The book Ruth is of the same series, and of like origin. 
The Gibbor cHail (trans, "mighty-man of valor") was 
still the founder of fanes, and so were the Esh-eth cHail 
(trans, "woman virtuous", Ruth 3 : 11), for Chail may be 
the Egyptain cHaut or "commander", and the Greek Kleios, 
" glory." We have spoken at length of Naomi the Cham-oth 
(trans. " mother-in-law") or "Egyptian", and of Ruth the 
Chall-ath (trans, "daughter-in-law"). Every people have 
their " divine aforetime ", their theogonies, " when the gods 
were unforgotten, yea, whiles they walked with men" 
(Judges 21 : 25 ; i K. 4: 20), and hence Boaz is a Kerob 
or " near "-god, who is sufficiently mortal to eat and drink 
(Ex. 24: 11) as Jehoah did, and even to become Tab or 
"merry " as Boaz, and "drunk" or Sachar (Gr. E-Schara^ 
"hearth") as Noach. 



DATES OF THE HEBREW SCRIPTURES. 211 

The four books of Samuel and Kings have also many 
primitive touches, but the voice of the ecclesiastic is heard 
in them. They purport to record a period between B. C. 
1050 and B. C. 580. The two Chronicles are a feeble and 
priestly abstract of the four former, and evidently written 
when the Ezraic hierarchy was haughtily entrenched (2 Chr. 
36 : 20), and perhaps not long before the Christian era, and 
in the spirit which could say The " true " (Amtn) to him, 
Jehoah your God, he Amin to them ; the true to his proph- 
ets and he "comes-upon" or "shadows" (^Zil-acK) them. 
In the Chronicles the priests had become kings in the Has- 
monian line, and found it better not to impugn royalty as 
their predecessors did ; hence they omit the story of Absa- 
lom's rebellion, of David's murder of Aor-Iah and prostitution 
of Bath-Sheba, of Elij ah's insolence toward Achab, of Elisha's 
deposition of cHazael and the house of Achab, &c. ; but 
the omission of any story of these worthies may be due to 
the probable fact that they still had shrines near by, as we 
know Elijah's was in great repute a generation or more 
after Christ ; while the long and peaceable reign of bad 
Manasseh, as told in the Kings, is enlarged in the zealous 
Chronicles by a new account in which he is made a captive 
at Babylon. The 2 Samuel is an elaboration of the story of 
David, which could be omitted without impairing the 
sequence. The post-captive date of these several books is 
attested by them (i K. 8 : 46). Their authenticity is not 
sustained by any other writing, and by no lithography or 
monuments, either theirs or those of others. All scholars 
now recognize that Romulus and Numa are as mythical as 
the Mars or -^sculapios Wi^y represent, and they are said 
to have lived nearly three centuries after the warrior David 
and the wise Shelomeh. 

The Ezra and the Nehemiah (Nechem-Iah) are perhaps 
little indebted to their putative authors for their composi- 
tion, though both these are probably names of real charac- 
ters. The latter book includes the time of Jaddua (Nehe. 



212 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

12 : II, 22, 47), who was high-priest in the time of Alex- 
ander of Macedon, or a century later than Nechem-Iah 
("repent-" or "comforter-Jehoah"). Yet these two little 
books seem the key to the Jewish canon. The crude condi- 
tions they describe may well have caused Ezra or Nechem- 
Iah to originate the Hexateuch or its nucleus or substance. 
It seems to us difficult to understand Jewish annals and 
Jehoah-ism without an understanding of these two books. 
Whatever history there was beyond the time therein cov- 
ered is vague and shadowy, for the same peoples were in 
Canaan and round about Jerusalem (Ezra 9: 2-3; Nehe. 5 : 
17) in the time of Ezra and Nechemiah that had been 
driven out or destroyed a thousand years before (Deut. 2 : 
34; 3: 6; Josh. 10: — 11:), and had not been assimilated 
even under the warrior David and the mighty Shelomeh, 
so that it might seem that the people Isra-El took name 
from Ezra who separated the holy Zera or "seed ", and who 
perhaps introduced the name Jehoah (whence "Jews") 
which appears in the name of " Darius ", the Persian Dare- 
lahveh and Dare-Iav-Esh, for the interesting account of 
the Jeremiah (37: — 44:), describing a period a century 
before Ezra, when the people of Jehudah migrated to 
Egypt, seems to show that Jehoah was not the deity of that 
people, nor in his remonstrance against their going does 
Jeremiah at all refer to their having ever dwelt in Egypt at 
any time before ; a silence which seems fatal to the whole 
account of the Hexateuch ; since the vision parts of the 
Jeremiah, where he alludes (32: 21) to the Exodus, it was 
done hy Ezer-Oa Natu-Iah (trans, "arm stretched-out"), 
as in the Hexateuchal phrase, and therefore priestly and 
subsequent to the Captivity ( Jere. 25 : 11) and even to the 
fall of Persia (25: 26), B. C. 330, as Sheshach probably 
alludes to Alexander, and the Medes had not become a 
power in the putative time of Jeremiah, while Ezer-Oa may 
be Ezra the " eunuch " {E-Sar-is) or " mutilated " {Natuk), 
and he may have been Nat-uk (Lev. 22 : 24). Howbeit, 



DATES OF THE HEBREW SCRIPTURES. 21 3 

Ezra's great struggle was to require the Israelites to be an 
exclusive people, and not to adulterate (Ex. 20: 14), and 
in this effort they claim (Nehe. 9 : 2) he succeeded, and for 
reasons (13 : 1-3) which are amplified by precept and inci- 
dent in the Hexateuch, and even as the cause of Shelomeh's 
apostasy. The observance of Shab-ath is assigned to 
Nechem-Iah, yet the writer (Nehe. 13: 15-22) seems igno- 
rant of the penalty (Ex. 35: 2) for its violation, which 
must have been prescribed later, nor does he cite the penalty 
actually claimed to have been executed on a man for this 
offence in the presence of Mosheh himself (Num. 15: 32- 
36) ; as, indeed, Ezra, with all his zeal against adulteration, 
and ** ready writer as he was in the law of Mosheh" (Ezra 
7 : 6), fails to cite the dreadful plague (Num. 25 :) which 
was caused by marriages with the Midianites. But the 
passage of the Ezra (7 : 11) seems a clear claim for Ezra 
that he was the author of such commandments and statutes 
as are usually assigned to the prehistoric Mosheh. 

The "Isaiah", or Jesha-Ae- Jahu, is a collection of lyrics, 
many of which for grandeur and sublimity have never been 
surpassed. A few chapters about the reign of " Hezekiah " 
or cHezeki-Jahu seem to have been copied into this collec- 
tion in order to show that the author lived in that time, but 
the poems were perhaps mostly written after the Macca- 
beau war, as Ba-Aal-Pipki-oih (trans. " teeth ") seems to 
be Antiochus E-Piphanes (41 : 15, 25), and (19 : 18) the 
migration of Onias to Egypt, B. C. 160, seems to be referred 
to, as the temple he built at Leonta-polis is perhaps city of 
the cHeres (trans, "city of destruction" ) or Horus ; while 
(53 '• 3> 4) -^ish Macoboth (trans. " man of sorrows ") and 
Macaben Seb-Elem (trans, "carried sorrows") possibly 
refers to Judas Maccabaios and to his slain brother Eleazer 
Auran, both of whom were killed about B. C. 160; and so 
the reference (55: 13) to Hadas (trans, "myrtle-tree") as 
a name for Jehoah certainly indicates Greek influence, and 
he comes at or with death (Rev. 6: i-io), which latter 



214 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

figure is drawn from the Zechariah (i : 8, &c.), where the 
Hadass-im in Ma-Zull-ah seem the shades of the " departed " 
{A-Zel) as understood in the Apocalypse, for these in this 
Zechariah are Shekat-eth, not " at rest ", but " slain." The 
scene (Isaiah 66: 17) which represents the rites of Bacchus 
or Osiri or Adonis, referred to as A-cHar A-cHad or " be- 
hind One " (perhaps " Syrian One ", as Achar-u or ** west " 
is the Chaldaic for "Syria"), where flesh of cHezir or 
** swine" is eaten (Herod. 2: 47-49) because a boar killed 
Adonis, is not necessarily after the Macedonian supremacy, 
as the mention of A-Chabar (trans, "mouse") or "glorious" 
indicates the Aaron Berith or Kabiri cult of the sacred 
Baris (i Sam. 6: 11) which had long prevailed on the 
Phoenician coast as in Egypt ; and it is notable that both 
Apollo and Heracles are called Mus-Agat-es, and not as 
" leader of Muses ", but with reference to the sacred mouse 
of Egypt, (Gr. Mygale), just as Apollo was called Michal 
in Laconia. That the Isaiah (19 : 20) suggests the mission 
and even the name of Mo-Shi-Aa (trans. " saviour ") may 
have been after as well as before the story of the Exodus 
was written, and the allusion may be (20:) to the man le- 
Esha-Jahu who walked through Egypt as a sign and won- 
der after the people had fled thither (52 : 4) from Sargon 
(B. C. 720) or Nebuchadnezzar (B. C. 580), and to whom the 
poems "Isaiah" are ascribed. The reference to Chor-Esh 
(trans. " Cyrus") is merely to the "smith" and "car- 
penter " {cHoresh and cHoTesh-Aszt-zm) of which the 
writer had just been speaking (44 : 12, 13), the divine demi- 
urge or deity of the " abyss " (Chald. Karasi ; Ckeroze, 
herald, Dan. 3:4), and the word is applied to Jakob and Sha- 
Aul (Gen. 34: 5; i Sam. 10: 27, trans. " held-his-peace ") 
as workmen who wrought silently, and to others. The 
Elohai Amen (trans, "true God") of the Isaiah (65: 16) 
seems to us the same as the Aiman-u-El (not " Immanuel "). 
son of Aailam-ah (fern. " Eternal " ; Phoenician Ullom, 
" time ", Heb. Aolam, Gr. Olym-pus) or the feminine Elohim, 



DATES OF THE HEBREW SCRIPTURES, 21 S 

and perhaps the allusion is to the child cHar pa-cHerat 
whom Isi-s conceived by the dead Osiri ; for many of these 
Isaiah songs are probably Egyptian, as we see the *' Awake 
Zion" ("AuriZion") seems the Eiri-Sione of the Greek 
O-Socha-Phoria. 

Save the Jeremiah and one or two others, such as the 
Jonah and the Daniel, the " prophetic " books are mainly 
in harmony with the Isaiah, though none is so exhilerant or 
sublime. Their purpose seems chiefly to assail rival cults, 
whose evils they deplore. The priestly house of Zadok had 
also to be exalted (Zech. 6: 9, 13 ; Ezek. 40: 46; 43: 19; 
44: 15; 48: II, &c.), which shows they must have had 
kings there in the past times, and so we have the tale of 
Melechi-Zedek (Gen. 14: 18-20) as one to whom even 
Abraham paid tithe. Dates of their authors are usually 
professed in order to make " prophecy" of what had already 
occurred, and these dates are those of the later kings, who 
come and go merely to illustrate the effect of doing good or 
evil in the sight of Jehoah. The Malachi, which is placed 
last, seems mainly to be a complaint that the priests are not 
fed, and hence shows Jehoah-ism was declining; but its 
closing chapter joins in the story of a restoration of a divine 
sort, and even names Elijah the Gedm (trans, "prophet"), 
whence Gabri-El, as the forerunner or "herald" (^Cher-Oz), 
though Geb seems " locust " or " grasshopper " (Amos. 7 : 
I ; Nahum 3: 17), which texts seem to allude to the hungry 
priesthood, but John Baptist took the word literally when 
his food was locusts, while perhaps the " righteous in 
Carmel Te-Sheh'' (trans, "fruitful-fields dwell") of the 
Isaiah (32: 16) gave the idea to the Malachi. 

Another feature in some of these books or tracts is the 
factional struggle between certain claims to royalty and the 
priesthood ; shown in the historic books by the vicious and 
irreligious conduct ascribed to the kings ; even to David 
and Shelomeh, to cHezekiah and Josiah ; while the priest- 
hood are crowned in Aharon himself (Ex. 19: 6; Lev. 8: 



2l6 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

6-13). It might seem the house of Zadok against the house 
of David. Thus the Hosea (3: 4-5) and the Jeremiah (33: 
17) promise the restoration of the Davidic line or cult ; the 
Hosea (4:9) condemning the priesthood, as the Jeremiah 
continually does (5 : 30-31 ; 6: 13 ; 7: 22; 8 : 10; 14: 14, 18; 
23: II, &c.) ; while the Zechariah (6: 9-13) seems written 
to urge that the hierarchy which begun with Jeshua as the 
** branch" should wear a crown, though he had probably 
arrived from Babylonia astride an ass (9 : 9) ; and the 
apotheosis of this Jeshua is contained in the third chapter, 
insomuch that it is possible to suspect his very name was 
given to a supposititious hero of nine centuries before who 
was alleged to have led the Israelites into Canaan. Indeed, 
the curious story seems interpolated into the Genesis (14: 
1-20) to show that the priesthood in the line of Zadok, of 
which Jeshua was a scion, were " kings" (Melechi-Zedek) 
as well as hiresiarchs at Jerusalem before David's time, and 
that even Abram paid tithes to him ; and so the name of the 
last "king "of Jerusalem was altered to Zadek-Iah (2 K. 
24: 17). It was doubtless the country people who clung 
to the Davidic sect, and we have it in the Isaiah (11 : i-io) 
that the " branch " will come from that line. 

The Jeremiah seems written partly during the Captivity 
and partly after the Return. It differs from the other 
books in its fierce assaults on the corrupt priesthood (5 : 
30-31 ; 7 : II, 22, &c.). Its extraordinary denial (7 : 22; 8: 
8, 10) of the whole ceremonial law must have been some 
time subsequent to Ezra's promulgation of it, for the Ezekiel 
(8:) shows that that law was not known during the Zerub- 
babel time. Other passages (25 : 11 ; 29 : 10; 30 : 3, £8-22 ; 
50: 2; 51 : 8-1 1, 41) evince post-captive date. If the lan- 
guage of certain other priestly books (Ezek. 13 : 1-9 ; 14 : 
10 ; 22 : 28 ; 33 : 33 ; Isaiah 9:13; Deut. 13 : 22) are attacks 
on the Jeremiac school or sect, then some passages of the 
Jeremiah (6: 13; 8: 10; 14: 14, 18 ; 23: 11) seem a counter- 
charge. The Jeremiah (7: 31 ; 19: 5; 32: 35) joins the 



DATES OF THE HEBREW SCRIPTURES. 21/ 

Ezekiel (i6 : 36; 23 : 37, 39) and the Micah (6: 7) in ob- 
jecting to human sacrifices, which seems to have been a 
practice under Ezraic ordinance (Nehe. 10 : 36 ; comp. 2 K. 
3 : 27 ; Ex. 22 : 29-30 ; Num. 3 : 40-51). The word "Jews " 
is also evidence of late date, after the worship of Jehoah 
was established, and the word is used more frequently in 
the Jeremiah than in any book save the Esther, as really it 
is scarcely found in any other ; and we suppose it was never 
applied till long after Ezra's era. Jeremiah himself seems 
a real personage, and his effort in behalf of the Casidi-im 
(trans. " Chaldeans "), his arrest and trial, and his deporta- 
tion to Egypt, all seem real events and somewhat like the 
struggle of Jesus, and his arrest and trial. 

The "Job" (Ai-Aob) is bodily an Elohist book with a 
Jehoah-ist prologue and continuance and epilogue. His 
name is Hebrew both for " enemy " and " familiar-spirit ", 
but in Egyptian Ab meant a "sacrifice", and Aa is "great" 
(but comp. Heb. Aahah, " Alas ! " , the grief ejaculation, 
Judges 6: 22); hence in Hebrew Ai-Aob may be "ag- 
grieved-spirit." The land of Auz (trans. "Uz") seem to 
be the Egyptian Thebaid, called Uas and Ap-t As-u, which 
is our word " oasis ". and Job may personify this. The 
Shab-ae, not " Sabeans " (i: 15), who took his cattle are 
perhaps the " seven " Hathors or " Fates ", just as they are 
the "seven" Ma-Chel-Eph-oth (trans, "locks") of Shim- 
shon, or the seven mouths of the Nile which Job may 
represent ; though the seven Igig-i (whence Agag, Ogyges, 
"ogre") or " arch-angels " were also potent on the Eu- 
phrates. The Casidi-im (trans. "Chaldeans") may be the 
same, as Casid (Ps. 16: 10) is "holy-one." These, with 
the Ash (trans, "fire") and the Ruach (trans, "wind") 
prostrate Job, who, like " plain " ( Tarn) Jakob, is a " per- 
fect " ( Tarn) man, but do not change his religion ; but this 
happens when he is "in Shechan Ra" (trans, "with sore 
boils") or "house of evil " or (Egyptian i?^z) " the Sun." 
All this is allowed by Jehoah at the instance of "the 



2l8 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

Satan ", who seems to be one of the sons of ** the Elohim." 
Job's daughters are Jemim-a, a *' dove " or " days " ('* im- 
mortality ") ; Kez-Iah, the "summer" or "awake"- Je- 
hoah ; and Keren-Happuch (ha-Pach), perhaps the " horn- 
ed " or "crowned" goddess Pach-at (Egyp. "lioness"), 
or Shech-it, who with a sword guards the tree of life 
(comp. Gen. 3 : 24, Meth-ha-Pach-eth) and as Pach-aih 
(trans, "pit") received the body of the slain Abshalom. 
The original perhaps begun with 3 : 3 and ended with 31 : . 
The Sheb Shaba-ath (trans. " turned the captivity ") may 
also refer to Lake Pa-Sebo (or Zani) at the head of the 
Nile, and the "return" of its waters. The Job so far ex- 
cels other Bible writings in the profundity of its specula- 
tions and thought, save a few of the Proverbs, that its 
nativity among the uncultured Jews becomes a problem, 
and except the language there is not a single word to show 
that it is a production of that people. Even as a wail over 
the " Captivity ", as it might seem to be, it lacks the basic 
Jewish theorem that all calamities are for disobedience to 
Jehoah, while Job is a perfect man. The date of it is now 
considered by scholars to be somewhat recent, but the in- 
dicia of this is slight either way. 

The Esther is probably a Jewish production of the first 
century, or rather an adaptation, as it is not mentioned by 
Philo but is by Josephus. No name of a Canaanite or 
Hebrew deity is mentioned in it except that of E-Sether 
(not "Esther") herself, who seems the Ashethor-eth of 
the Sidon-im (i K. 11 : 5, &c.), who became (Deut. 7: 13; 
28 : 4) a synonim of fecundity, as Ashethor-et Zoan (trans, 
"young of flocks") in the latter citations does not seem 
more than " rutting of sheep " ; though Setar is " hidden " 
or " secret ", and the name Esether or Ishitar was applied 
by the Syrians and perhaps by the Chaldeans to the day- 
star, and the latter called one of their chief goddesses 
Ishtar ; their story of the descent of Ishtar into Hades in 
quest of her lover being yet extant ; wherefore Esether is 



DATES OF THE HEBREW SCRIPTURES. 219 

called (Estli. 2 : 7) Hadass-ah, the Dis-Pena or Prosepine 
of the West; but in the Chaldean "descent of Ishtar*' she 
is Ceres or the Earth-mother, Dum-Uz (Tamm-Uz) is the 
lover who is held in the Shades, and Allat is the Inferno- 
queen, The original story seems to end with 2 : 18, and 
given to explain the origin of the Mi-Sheih-ah (trans, 
"feast") of Esether, held in the month Tebeth (2 : 16) or 
at the winter solstice ; and so (i Sam. 25 : 20, 36) Abi-Gail 
comes down to David by the Satar of the mountain, and 
Nab-al's Ma-Sheth-ah or " feast " results in her favor, but 
Ma-Sheth-im is there " man-child" (vv. 22, 34), as Mosheh 
was Mo-Shith (tr. "drew-out ") of his Teb-ath ; so that 
the net-result is the re-birth of the year or the Sun or vege- 
tation after their descent into the " abyss " (Chald. KarasK)^ 
or the " white sepulchre " called " Shushan the Ber-ah " 
(Esth. I : 2). Mordecai is the god Merod-ach. This 
original part or story is supplemented with a vStory respect- 
ing the peril from which Esether delivered the Jews, as if 
the author knew the story of Ishtar's daring descent, but 
who proceeds to give a reason for the festival Pur-im, or 
rise of the Pur-ath or Euphrates, with perhaps the purpose, 
by himself or some later hand who fixed the dates, to please 
the Hellenized Jews, who perhaps could not tolerate the 
observance of the death of Judas Maccabeus (Jos. Antiq. 
12: 10) by the rustic population, and which observance 
they held annually on the day of his death at Hadassah, 
13th Adar B. C. 161. Pur or Phar, however, is the Mith- 
raic "bull", perhaps (Ex. 29: ib), itself probably a type 
of the Pur-at or Bur-at, slain by the Sun. But we refer to 
our remarks on the Pur-im for further suggestions about 
it, and on this subject, for we take it that the " exalt "-ation 
(Ex. 9: 17) or Ma-Seth-Olal which Jehoah or Mosheh 
charged against Pharoah implies some festival of the 
kind. There is no outside support for the story as a 
historic incident. 

The Jonah seems a satire on the numerous " prophets " 



220 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

or dervishes, not alone of Judea, but the violent ecclesiasti- 
cism of all ages and peoples. Their " Thus saith Jehoah" 
had become so common as to excite derision even from 
those who were using a like phraseology (Ezek. 22: 28; 
Jere. 23: 25-31; Deut. 13: 1-5; Zech. 13: 2-6), and their 
uncouth garb or " hairy mantle" (Sa-Aar Adderetfi) is said 
to have been *' worn to deceive ", and yet John the Baptist 
seems to have ignored this text of the Zechariah ; but the 
Adder-eth or "mantle" of the hairy Elijah was perhaps 
the leopard-skin worn by the Egyptian Sam or "high- 
priest " of funereal exercises, and this custom was perhaps 
connected with the worship of Heracles, who wore a lion 
skin, and is identified with the Egyptian Bes, who seems 
the Canaanite Moloch. The Jonah seems also to assault 
the very general story of the Deluge, or inferentially de- 
fends Jehoah against the aspersion that he was the mon- 
strous deity who thus destroyed his creatures ; supplying 
us with a pitying and merciful concept of him, as refusing 
to destroy mankind ** and much cattle " in order to gratify 
the vanity of a fanatical dervish^ Jon-ah is a feminine 
form, and is rendered "dove", which "dove" (Chald. 
Sum-mat) was sacred to the goddess Sem-Aram or Semir- 
Am, a name of Ishtar , and Nun is Hebrew for " fish", and 
Nin-eveh seems to have been a shrine of Nin the Assyrian 
"fish "-god. Evidences of its date are not clear, but, if the 
story relates to the Assyrian capital in its great splendor, 
this was before the year 600 B. C, when it was taken by 
the Scythians, while the abuses of ecclesiasticism which it 
attacks are centuries later in Judea. The use of the word 
Mallach-im for " mariners " is suggestive of Chaldaic in- 
fluence, as that is the name given to the "mariners " in the 
vessel of their Noach, and is only used in that sense thrice 
elsewhere (Ezek. 27: 9, 27, 29). Jesus seemed to under- 
stand the belly of the Dag (trans, "fish") as a type of 
Sheol (Mat. 12 : 39-41), and perhaps expected the Jews to 
"repent" as promptly as the Ninevites, as John also did. 



DATES OF THE HEBREW SCRIPTURES. 221 

That the sensuous yet beautiful "Song of Songs" or 
Canticles should find a place in the sacred writings of 
austere Jews and Christians is accounted for on the behalf 
that they attach to it a mystic or allegoric meaning. The 
Jews still read it at their Spring observance Pa-Sach ; a 
fact which tends to support the opinion that the song is an 
epithalamium at the marriage of Sun and Earth, or the 
Nile and Egypt. Its purpose or meaning, however, is yet 
to be solved, and it is probably a mere passionate colloquy 
between lovers. There is no indicia of its date. 

The Daniel seems to have had more than one author. 
The earlier parts purport to relate the fortunes and great- 
ness of one Daniel, " of the children of Judah ", and is of 
the Joseph series, of which the Oriental imagination is 
quite fond, as indeed every fanciful mind. The latter part 
of the book seems to have been added as the visions or 
prophecies of so great a man. His Chaldaic name, Beltes- 
hazzar (Dan. i : 7) is probably Ba-Aal-Tesh-Assur or the 
" goat-god-captive " in the sense of the Sun in Capri-corn, 
of Pan or Saturn in solitude or deposed, of Osiri or Shim- 
shon imprisoned, of Shemu-El under ground, of Elijah the 
" hairy man " {Aisk Ba-Aal Saare) carried off b}^ the Searah, 
&c. ; to whom as Az-Azel the goat was sent ; and the " de- 
parted" {Azel) Osiri became "judge" or "judgment-god" 
{Daian- or Dani-El) of the dead ; so the A-Don-ai (trans. 
"Lord") of the Jews was a severe concept of Deity, ap- 
proaching the character of the classic Min-os, as in Egypt 
the old Seb, " father of the gods ", was called their " heir " 
or Repa, which is perhaps the Hebrew Rapha (trans, 
"dead", "healer", "giant"), and is the sad and outcast 
Belle-Rophon. In Chaldaic, however, Addin (Dan. 7: 25) 
is rendered "time" or "year", equivalent to the Phoenician 
god Ullam, the Hebrew Elohim and classic Olym-pus or 
Olym-Api, the "Eternal" or "Eternal Nile", and the 
story of the Syrian A-Don-is is that of the year. Dani-El 
was evidently the fourth Gubor or Geber in the " fiery- 



222 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

furnace " or Atun-Aa, a word which suggests the Egyptian 
Aten or "sun-disk", and his "aspect was like a son of 
Elohim." Nebuchadnezzar worshipped (2 : 46) Daniel, 
whose wisdom was that of Elohim (5 : 11). To Belshazzar 
he was the mysterious Men-e Tek-El Peres ; perhaps the 
"true" or "hidden" {A-Men) "bound-god" {Teka-El; the 
A-Tik or "ancient" of days) of the "cloven-foot" {Peres), 
who is easily identified with Pa-Tach Sekar, god of Moph 
or Memphis, whom the Greeks called Heph-^stos or 
Mul-Ciber, and the Greeks pronounced the name Pataik-os, 
as doubtless Egyptians said Pa-Tach, as using the definite 
article Pa, and hence the Hebrew Pa-Sach is the " lame " 
god or demi-urge, who as Mephi-Bosh-eth was son of the 
" fastened "( 7>/^«) Shaul, for Tach-eth is also "under", 
"beneath", and this is why Shimshon in the house of 
Assir-im did or was Toch-An (trans. " grind ") or was the 
god Pa-Tach or "Ptah"; and so the Tach-Ash-im (trans. 
" seal")-skins over the "ark "and the " tabernacle " per- 
haps were coverings which derived their name from the 
word Tach or Teka, which would be a mere Chaldaism for 
Sach or Sek-aa; and the horned goat formed the prow- 
figure of Osir's barge, and hence Seir-im (Lev. 17: 7; 2 
Chr. II : 15) were worshipped by the Jews, as at Men-Des 
in Egypt, and Men-i Mi-Me-Shech (Isaiah 65: 11) is not 
perhaps " mingled- wine to Destiny", but to Men or Amen 
" veiled " {Me-ShecK) in some form of beast such as a goat 
or "crocodile" (Egyp. Em-SacK). The original book 
" Daniel " probably ended where his visions begin, and 
some later writer built these to the fame of the divine-man, 
who had been in the Gobbe of lions and the furnace. The 
subsequent parts are " visions " which mainly refer to the 
Macedonian conquest and kingdoms, to the conduct of 
Antiochus Epiphanes, and the rebellion of Micha-El (Dan. 
12: i) or Maccabaios, B. C. 166 — 160. These visions are 
the aspirations for a betterment which preceding writers 
had also dwelt upon, and seem to have been composed just 



DATES OF THE HEBREW SCRIPTURES. 



223 




A Gtod or King going to battle, with the Urau (Heb. Ruach) " come-tnightily" (Heb. 
Zel-ach) or ' ' overbhadowiug ' ' him. [From the Egyptian ioscriptions]. 

after the successful revolt or during its progress, but they 
were construed (Mat. 24 : 1-31) doubtless by many Jews as 
indicating the time of a future event, and even fixing the 
time or occasion of it ; thus leading, two centuries later, 
to the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, the disper- 
sion of the Jews, and the rise of Christianity. A very 
notable and valuable feature of the book is the theological 
idea advanced (7 : 9-14) in the famous pen-picture of two 
deities, which is so much in harmony with the religious 
concepts of all surrounding peoples, and well expressed by 
Strabo (17 : 2 : 3) of the Ethiopians, whom he says " regard 
as God one being who is immortal, the cause of all things; 
another, who is mortal, a being without a name, whose 



224 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

nature is not clearly understood "; for the Atik Jom-im, or 
"ancient of days", yields the concept of the old Creator- 
god, resting after his work as a demi-urge, and delivering 
over the affairs of men to Chebar Enosh or the " glorious- 
man ", for this seems to us a better rendering than " like- 
unto" (^Che) "the son of man" (^Bar Enosh), as even the 
Ben- Adam (trans. " son of man ") of the Ezekiel may be 
" son of Earth" ; while Atik or Athik is probably the Tach- 
ath (trans, "beneath" or " under ")-god, represented by 
Shaul " fastened " ( Teka) and Shimshon Toch-an (*' grind ") 
in the Beth Assir-im ; though this figure would make it 
appear as if it was the elder or father-god who suffered, as 
in case of the deposed Saturn or Osiri, whereas it is usually 
the younger or divine-man, as Prome-Theos (Egj^p. Perom, 
"the man"), &c. 

Much might be said of the Ezekiel, which is perhaps the 
oldest of apocalyptic books, but its chief features are its 
description or ideal of God as set forth in the ist and loth 
chapters; but the still more important 8th chapter shows 
the religious condition at Jerusalem after the "second 
temple" or perhaps just before Ezra established Jehoah as 
the national deity ; or probably even after Ezra's time, or a 
thousand years after the so-called Exodus, and which 
chapter accords with what we otherwise learn of Canaanite 
cults, but which, like the co-exilic account of the Jeremiah 
(44: 15-30), is a refutation of all the Jews claim for the 
antiquity of their sacred history. The book purports to 
have been written during the "Captivity" of the 4600 
people carried away to the Euphrates (Jere. 52 : 28-30), and 
it seems one of the earliest of the Hebrew writings, as its 
simple ritual for the great observances shows (45 : 18-25), 
and it perhaps suggested to the writers of the Hexateuch 
the division of the land of Israel (40: 1-2 ; 48: 1-7, 23-29), 
while it is utterly silent as to Mosheh and David and 
Shelomeh, and the whole secular narrative, save mentions 
of the Exodus and the sojourn in the Madebar. 



DATES OF THE HEBREW SCRIPTURES. 225 

The Psalms in some instances attest their post-exile date 
(53* 6; 74: 7 ; io6: 46: 137: 1-3). Some of them might be 
hymns to the Nile, as the Nehil-oth (5 :), those called Ma- 
Sach-Il (32 : &c.), the Al-ta-Shechath (57 : &c.), the Zach-ir 
(38 : &c.), perhaps the Shigga-ion (7 :), and the famous 
Aial-eth ha-Sachar (22 :), though these terms apply to 
numerous things or conditions besides the Sich-Aor. The 
festal or joyous spirit is absent from nearly all of these 
songs, and they give expression to a sombre and fervid 
religion, which is indicative of evil material conditions. 
The "Lamentations" is merely a lengthy ode of like sort. 

The Proverbs and the Ecclesiastes possess great value as 
maxims, and as evidence of the meditative intellect ; but 
they possess no other historic value, and even that value is 
lessened by the fact that the date of their collection is un- 
known. Some of these maxims show a keen insight into 
practical life, while others show that pessimism was 
thriving upon the injustice of man to man. 



PART II. 

["// ought not to be made a condition of Salvation to believe that 
there was once a Man who by his holiness and merit gave satisfaction 
for himself and all others ; for of this the Reason tells us nought; but 
it is the duty ofmett universally to elevate themselves to the Ideal of 
moral perfection deposited in the Reason, and to obtain moral strength 
by the contemplation of this Ideal. Such moral faith alone is man 
bound to exercise, and not historic faith. " — Kant : Die Religion. ] 



CHAPTER XIII. 

THE CURIOUS NARRATIVE OF THE CRUCIFIXION. 

THE execution of Jesus Christ had not only the earnest 
approbation of the Jewish authorities, but of the 
population at Jerusalem. And it was not approval only, for 
the rancor displayed toward him by the authorities and 
the populace was extreme. In demanding his death, in 
preference to that of Bar-Abbas, it is clear that Jesus had 
exasperated the Jews more than if he had committed mur- 
der or robbery, or raised sedition, as Bar-Abbas was ac- 
cused of one or the other of these crimes (comp. Jere. 26 : 
7-ii;38:4). 

True, one must allow most liberally, in considering the 
incidents of his life and death, for the desire on the part of 
his biographers to conform these incidents to texts of the 
Hebrew scriptures; and hence each reader must judge for 
himself whether he is being treated to facts or to this pro- 
cess of conformity. 

As we read, his trial and execution were attended by cir- 
cumstances of rigor and animosity. That he was scourged 
(Isaiah 53 : 5, " stripes " or Chabur-eh, perhaps " glorified ") 
was certainly a part incident to the sentence, or preliminary 
to the act of crucifixion ; but he was taunted and mocked 
and insulted (Ps. 22: 7-8; Jere. 48 : 27), and even "pierced" 
(Ps. 22 : 16 ; Zech. 12 : 10) with nails and a spear. 

Pilate, the Roman governor, who examined Jesus pri- 
vately (Jere. 38 : 14), could not understand that Jesus was 

guilty of any offense, or any serious offense, and certainly 

(229) 



230 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

not one which deserved death ; but he allowed the clamor 
of the Jews to overcome his adjudgment (Jere. 38: 5). 
The Luke supplies the further information that Herod 
Antipas, tetrarch of Perea and Galilee, also examined Jesus, 
without condemning, but mocked and derided him, and The 
Acts (4 : 27) confirms this ; and Herod's wish to see Jesus 
perform a wonder is reconcilable with the desire he had at 
another time to see him (Luke 8 : 9 ; 23 : 8), but is not con- 
sistent with the statement made by the Pharisees to Jesus 
(13 • 31) that Herod wished to kill him. When before 
Pilate the Luke and the John both say some colloquy en- 
sued, but the Matthew (27 : 14) and the Mark (15 : 5) say 
he stood mute save as to one question (Ps. 38 : 13 ; Isaiah 
53 : 7), as the Luke also says he was mute before Herod. 

No person save Pilate interfered in behalf of Jesus, or 
even displayed moderation. It has been suggested that 
Pilate was at enmity with the Jews ( Josephus, " Wars " 2 : 
9), and did not wish to oblige them, whatever he may have 
thought as to Jesus. Another person who may be said to 
have interfered was a man who was with Jesus at the time 
of his arrest, and the John Gospel tells us that this was 
Peter, a Galilean. The incident of Pilate's wife, which 
seems to have caused him to pronounce Jesus a righteous 
man, was a dream, and is told only by the Matthew. 

But the Luke (23 : 27) says a multitude followed Jesus 
as he went to execution, and also women who " wailed and 
lamented him ", but the other gospels do not tell this. The 
John says that John and the mother of Jesus and Mary 
Magdalen, with two other women, were by the cross at the 
execution ; but this is positively contradicted by the Mat- 
thew (27: 56) and the Mark (15: 40), which say Mary 
Magdalen with other women of Galilee were " afar off ", 
and the Luke says the women of Galilee " stood afar off." 
The Luke (23 : 48) further says *' all the multitudes " who 
came to the scene " returned, smiting their breasts." In 
that narrative we are told that it was " the women that fol- 



THE CURIOUS NARRATIVE OF THE CRUCIFIXION. 23 1 

lowed with him from Galilee " who " stood afar off ", with 
" all his acquaintances ", but it is not stated what became 
of the " daughters of Jerusalem " (Luke 23 : 28). 

The three synoptics agree that the centurion was agitated, 
as well as others, and two of them say he declared Jesus the 
son of God, but the Luke says he declared Jesus a righteous 
man. That the disciple John did not write the John Gos- 
pel may well be inferred from the fact that this remarkable 
confession is omitted from it, though John was standing 
near the cross, and the others do not seem to have been 
there, but the confession bore no fruit so far as even the 
care the centurion might have taken of the corpse of Jesus. 

In any case it seems that Jesus suffered with the consent 
of the people of Jerusalem ; the boisterous consent of the 
mass of them ; and that nought he had done or said had 
gained him a single friend or sympathizer there who had 
the courage to speak in his behalf. In the several incidents 
of his arrest and trial and execution, not a single Judean 
came forward to help him. And this though a few days 
before he had raised a man from death to life within two 
miles of the town, according to the John ; which asserts 
that this prodigy caused many Jews to believe on him (11: 
45; 12: 9, 11), and even the priests and Pharisees to ac- 
knowledge his miraculous power (11: 47). On the contrary 
the Matthew and Mark and Luke tell of the mocking and 
reviling of the spectators while he was suffering, and the 
Luke adds that the soldiers joined in this. That lots were 
cast for his garments (Ps. 22 : 18) all the gospels agree. 
Even the thieves crucified with him, in due accord with the 
Jeremiah (48 : 27), taunted him, for the averment that one 
of them repented or remonstrated with the other, made by 
the Luke, cannot be taken against the silence of the John 
and the assertion of the Matthew (27: 44), and the Mark 
(15 : 32) that both reviled him ; but in the Genesis (40: 13- 
14) Joseph asks the Ma-Shek-ah to remember him when he 
goes unto Pharaoh. 



232 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

Jesus was buried very privately, and by one man, though 
the John musters another man for the occasion ; but both 
were perhaps rich (Isaiah 53 : 9) for that was the require- 
ment. And this statement of his burial is in strange con- 
trast with that of Stephen, shortly after, for he, though 
murdered by a maddened populace, was " buried by devout 
men", who, there in Jerusalem, "made great lament over 
him" (The Acts 8:2); and this though Stephen had no 
fame as ** prophet ", had not raised the dead, nor walked on 
water, or been acknowledged by a voice from the sky as the 
son of God, or had his death been signalized by earth- 
quakes, unnatural darkness, risings of the saints, &c. ; so 
that Jesus must have been considered in a very odious 
aspect as compared with Stephen, though certainly the 
heavens opened at the death of the latter. The fear of 
seeming to be in open sympathy with Jesus probably kept 
his timid disciples away from the cross and from attention 
to his dead body, and yet a few days later the Luke (24 : 
53) says they were continually in the temple praising God. 
Surely such prodigies as occurred at the death of Jesus, 
when Earth quaked and rocks were rent (i K. 19: 11), 
when the dead came out of their graves (Dan. 12 : 2), and 
the "veil" or Me-Shech of the temple was torn (Isaiah 22: 
8), culminating in the admission of the centurion that this 
was the Son of God, would seem sufficient to bring out the 
entire population of the awe-stricken town to the burial, 
and that his tomb would instantly have been thronged b}- 
devotees. Even fear could not have prevented this, for it 
seems the chief priests and Pharisees " feared the multitude " 
(Mat. 21 : 46). But during the succeeding night and the 
following day, and the second night, no one, not even his 
mother, nor the women who saw him buried, seems to have 
gone to his grave, even though the Mosaic law (Deut. 21 : 
22-23) required that anyone " hanged on a tree " should be 
buried the same day. The prodigies were the most 
wondrous in the history of the world, if we take them as 



THE CURIOUS NARRATIVE OF THE CRUCIFIXION. 233 

related in the Matthew, but they seem to have left no im- 
pression on the spectators that resulted in any action on 
their part, and the Luke says they went back beating their 
breasts, while the Matthew (27 : 63) says the next day the 
Jewish authorities called Jesus a "deceiver" and had a 
guard set to watch the body from being stolen. But what 
could be expected of the multitude who passed through this 
frightful experience when his disciples, who had seen him 
do the most wondrous things, and who had repeatedly 
avowed their belief in his divinity or divine mission, at his 
arrest, "all forsook him and fled"? (Mat. 26: 56; Mark 14: 
50) ; nor did they even attend his burial ; and hence one is 
driven to conclude that they did not know of his miracles 
and prodigies, and did not believe on him, or else that they 
were differently constituted from any sort of humanity that 
now exists. 

It is quite natural for the intelligent to doubt the account 
of the nativity of Jesus as told in the Matthew and the 
Luke, and nowhere else alluded to in the New Testament. 
Marvelous accounts of the birth of Buddha, Zeus, Apollo, 
Shemuel, Mosheh, and others, prepare one for that of Jesus. 
Is it not likewise probable that the pathetic incidents of the 
Crucifixion, nowhere referred to in the New Testament out- 
side the Gospels, should proceed from the pious design to 
conform these to the appropriate passages at hand in the 
Hebrew Scriptures ? Pathetic stories were told of the death 
of Osiri, Adonis, Heracles, Prometheos, Abshalom, and 
others. Morbid devotion exists upon pathos. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

WHAT WAS THE OFFENSE OF JESUS? 

THE incidents of the Crucifixion, so heartless, so inhu- 
man, so opposite to social experiences save in the most 
fanatical periods, can scarcely be reconciled with other 
events of contemporary annals, unless, indeed, Jesus pur- 
sued a career of which we have not all the particulars. 
Thus, when, shortly after, Peter cured a lame man in the 
streets of Jerusalem, the incident is said to have so endear- 
ed him to the populace that it was a guarantee of protec- 
tion to him from the authorities, and to his companion 
John also (The Acts 4: 21). This result cannot be 
assigned to an increase of the number of Christians, or Gal- 
ileans as they were called, as we see that Stephen was 
stoned a little later ; but it attests the appreciation of the 
populace of such a benefactor. And at Lystra, in Lycaonia, 
when Paul cured a cripple there, a few years later, the 
populace at once hailed both him and his companion as 
" gods ", and even against the protests of the two could 
barely be restrained from offering to them sacrifices as 
Jupiter and Hermes (The Acts 14: 18-43). The cure by 
Peter engrosses the space of twenty-six verses of one chap- 
ter and almost as many of another to tell of it and of its pop- 
ular effects. The Luke, which some suppose was written by 
the same author, and which alone records the raising from 
death by Jesus of the boy at Nain, appropriates only seven 
verses to that stretch of superhuman power (7: 11-17), 
and scarcely more to the resurrection of the daughter of 
Jairus (8: 41). (234) 



WHAT WAS THE OFFENSE OF JESUS ? 235 

More strange than the wonder-working itself is the fact 
that the miracles of Jesus seemed to have left no permanent 
impression upon anybody who saw them. The considerate 
are bound to ask, why did the cure of a single cripple sufi&ce 
to protect and popularize Peter and apotheosize Paul when 
the giving of life to three corpses, the walking on water, 
the voices of recognition from the sky, &c., &c., did not 
sufi&ce to save Jesus from the most ignominious death? 
or to lead a single follower to stand by him in his last 
hour ? Why were not the wondrous incidents and works of 
Jesus remembered by some one or more of the multitude 
who attended the Passover, and plead at his trial ? These 
miracles and prodigies all occurred within a year or two 
before, and of some of them it is said the fame of it had 
gone forth into all the land (Mat. 9 : 25 ; Luke 7 : 17), 
throughout all Syria (Mat. 4: 24), &c. In the Luke (2: 
17:) we are told that the wonders even of his birth were 
known abroad, and it also tells us (2: 47) a curious and 
isolated story of Jesus astonishing the Sanhedrin by his 
precocious wisdom. Indeed, the restoration of life to Laz- 
arus, after his carcase had putrefied, which no one save the 
author of the John has mustered courage to relate, had 
occurred at Beth- Any, about two miles away, only a little 
while before, and we are told that this most remarkable ex- 
ercise of the "signs " of his thaum-urgic power was known 
to '* much people ", and had led many to believe on him 
(John 12 : 9-1 1) ; yet even here no one came forward when 
Jesus was arrested to plead this extraordinary story in be- 
half of Jesus ; no, not even the ungrateful Lazarus himself. 
It must seem, to those few who think, that the people who 
were present at the resuscitation of the corpse of Lazarus, 
and which people shortly before, at the time of Jesus's entry 
into Jerusalem, had borne witness to the miracle (John 12 : 
17), would have been clamorous to save Jesus from death ; 
but they did not appear. Neither came Jairus to testify or 
interpose, though a " ruler of the synagogue " (perhaps at 



236 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

Capernaum), who surely was at the Passover, and who 
could have proven by others as well as himself the signal 
triumph over nature which Jesus had wrought in the case 
of his daughter. Likewise recreant were the many blind 
and lame and cured demoniacs, and the thousands who fed 
on the invisible bread and fish (2 K. 4: 42-44), and from 
whom he withdrew when he saw they were about "to make 
him king" (John 6: 15), for many of these must have 
been at the Passover at Jerusalem, which the Greek writer 
of the John wrongly supposes could be observed on Lake 
Galilee (6: 1-4), but which always brought multitudes to 
Jerusalem. 

That there was some degree of moderation and humanity 
among the Jewish authorities appears quite forcibly shortly 
after the Crucifixion. We learn that the disciples were seiz- 
ed upon for " filling" Jerusalem with the assertion that Jesus 
had risen from the dead after he had been condemned and 
executed, and also for saying that he was the Christ. Jesus 
himself is not supposed to have advanced his claims fur- 
ther than this, nor well could (Mat. 26 ; 63-66), and in his 
case such claim rendered him " worthy of death." But, in 
behalf of the arrested disciples, arose one of the wisest of 
the Jews, Gamaliel, and spoke gems of counsel, which " on 
the outstretched forefinger of all time should sparkle for- 
ever " ; and he prevailed, for the disciples were merely 
beaten and then discharged (The Acts 5 : 33-42). If his 
wise and noble words could be advanced to shield the zeal- 
ous disciples for proclaiming that one who had been con- 
demned and executed by the authorities was the Christ, and 
that he was yet alive, surely the offences for which Jesus 
suffered, without a friendly voice, must have been more 
exasperating than the Gospels disclose. It is true that 
Stephen was stoned a while after, but he was denouncing 
the authorities and their ancestors as " betrayers and mur- 
derers ", and in much the spirit of the violent speech of 
Jesus in the 23d chapter of the Matthew. Howbeit, this 



WHAT WAS THE OFFENSE OF JESUS? 237 

same Gamaliel was perhaps present at the trial of Jesus, 
but raised no voice in his defence. "All the chief -priests 
and elders took counsel against Jesus to put him to death " 
(Mat. 27: i). 

It might be urged that the trial and execution of Jesus 
were somewhat hurried, and took place during the exer- 
cises of an observance which in that time drew ** an innu- 
merable multitude" ( Josephus, Antiq. 17: 9) to Jerusalem; 
and these facts might account for the absence of popular 
demonstrations, or even private intercessions, in his behalf. 
But the statements do not sustain this position. "A great 
multitude" (Mat. 26: 47; Mark 14: 43), or at least "a 
multitude " (Luke 22 : 47), witnessed his arrest ; and "the 
chief-priests and the elders and all the council" (Mat. 26: 
59) sat together at his trial. " A multitude" were present 
when he was examined by Pilate (Mat. 27 : 20, 24; Mark 
15 : 8 ; Luke 23 : 13) ; and " a great multitude of the people " 
(Luke 23 : 27) and "all his acqiiaintance " (Luke 23 : 49) 
were at the place of execution. The proceedings were, as 
Paul assures us, "not done in a corner" (The Acts 26: 26), 
though unnatural darkness, great earth-quakes, bursting 
rocks, and dead saints " appearing to many ", failed to im- 
press this worthy at the time. But " all the people " were 
willing for the blood of Jesus to be on their heads ; " all " 
said to Pilate "Let him be crucified" (Mat. 27: 25, 22). 
And the rage of the populace, and their conduct, is not 
easily understood if they knew ought of the miracles he did, 
for the most simple must then have considered that one who 
could heal diseases and raise the dead could not be pained 
by stripes and wounds, and that if he could restore life 
to others he could restore life to himself if he was put to 
death. 

But the salient fact is to be borne in mind that neither 
the signs and prodigies wrought by or in behalf of Jesus, 
nor the extraordinary incidents of his birth and at his 
baptism, nor the recognition of him as Me-Siach by the 



238 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

mighty John, availed Jesus ought, nor were even mentioned, 
in his defence. Yet the restoration of vitality to a corpse 
was not a common occurrence even in that land of the mar- 
velous ; nor the healing of the blind (John 10 : 32) ; nor did 
a star usually preside over the cradle of a child, and no 
voice from Heaven was ever before known to claim a man 
as the son of God (Mark i : 11 ; Mat. 3 ; 17 ; Luke 3 : 22). 
It is safe to say that, in this day, in no country of Earth 
could any man be subjected to a cruel and shameful death 
who had raised a dead body to life, no matter what doctrines 
that man might teach or what personal pretensions he 
might advance that were not subversive of law and order. 
Nay, from the cure of cripples by Peter at Jerusalem and 
by Paul at Lystra, in that very time, it must seem that the 
people of that age were not insensible to the merits of 
wonder-workers. Yet we are left with the problem that, 
conceding all the wondrous statements of the life of Jesus, 
known as they were (John 11 : 48; 12: 17-19), what enormi- 
ty could he have been supposed to have committed which 
drew on him such popular and official wrath ? Else wise, 
given this wrath and popular fury, what must have been 
thought by that people of these claims of his divinity and 
miraculous power occurring there in their midst ? And yet 
the John (11 : 47-57) would have us believe that the raising 
of Lazarus was the action for which the civic and religious 
authorities sought to kill Jesus, and even Lazarus (12 : 10). 



CHAPTER XV. 

THE SILENCE OF PAUL AS TO THE LIFE OF JESUS. 

THAT the wonderful things done by Jesus and told of 
him were not urged by anyone to save him from 
swift condemnation and the most cruel death is inex- 
plicable. Equally so is the silence of the writers of the 
New Testament epistles as to these statements of his 
"signs." 

There is no doubt in the opinion of any critic that Paul 
wrote certain of the epistles ascribed to him. That of 
Romans, the two Corinthians, and Galatians are the four 
which are thus free from all suspicion. The Philippians 
and the two Thessalonians are generally admitted by 
scholars to be his. These are certainly the earliest of the 
New Testament canon; almost certainly they antedate the 
four gospels. In not one of these epistles, or any of the 
fourteen ascribed to Paul, do we hear a single word con- 
cerning the annunciation, or of Mary, or of the voice and 
the dove at the baptism, or of Lazarus and the boy of Nain 
and the daughter of Jairus. 

In the case of Paul this profound silence is the more 
perplexing for that he was reared and educated at Jerusa- 
lem (The Acts 22: 3; 26: 4-5). He consented to the 
stoning of Stephen (8: i). It is more than probable that 
he was at the Passover, about the year 30, when Jesus was 
executed. More than this, Paul had probably seen Jesus 
(i Cor. 9: i; 2 Cor. 5: 16). From his lips Paul had 
doubtless heard the beautiful saying which is nowhere 
cited save in The Acts (20: 35) that "It is more blessed to 
give than to receive." Paul might possibly omit the 

(239) 



240 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

wondrous incidents of the career of Jesus when speaking 
at Jerusalem or to the Jews, but how could he omit these 
in his writings to the Gentiles? The populace at Lystra 
was anxious to worship Paul for merely curing a cripple ; 
those at Melita said he was a god because he was not killed 
by a serpent (The Acts 28: 6); those at Ephesus found 
full efl&cacy in apparel worn by him (19: 12); yet Paul 
never once relates, in letter or sermon, the wonders Jesus 
wrought or that were wrought for him, which, it must 
seem from Paul's own experience, would most easily have 
brought these peoples to a realization of the divine nature 
of his master. 

On the contrary, it was not these events and incidents 
that Paul relied on, asserted, or maintained. He never 
once cites any sign or wonder wrought by or for Jesus. 
Paul speaks of or alludes to, more than once, his own 
thaumaturgy (2 Cor. 12: 12), but positively refuses to dis- 
cuss any save those " signs " wrought through himself by 
the help of Jesus (Rom. 15: 18-19). ^^ ^"Y controversy 
or report was current in his day, as to the miracles worked 
by Jesus, Paul had no contention as to them, nor ever 
mentions them. It was for touching the resurrection of 
the dead, both the just and the unjust, that he was called 
in question by the Jews (The Acts, 23 : 6; 24: 15-21) ; or 
for declaring that Jesus was arisen (25 : 19) ; or for urging 
the Jews to repentance and good works (26 : 23) ; or for 
teaching that " the Hope of Israel " was extended to the 
Gentiles (28: 20,28). "If Christ be not risen", he de- 
clared, "our preaching is vain" (i Cor. 15: 14); and 
within eleven verses he formulates his whole creed of sal- 
vation and all the gospel he taught (i Cor. 15 : i-ii) ; and 
in this there is the central assertion of the physical revivi- 
fication of Jesus as the seal of his divinity (Rom. i : 4), as 
well as evidence of the bliss or woe in the physical nature 
that would attach to mankind after death. Paul's epistles 
were doubtless written between A. D. 50 and 60; about 



THE SILENCE OF PAUL AS TO THE LIFE OF JESUS. 24! 

which latter year he was sent to Rome ; and scarcely any 
scholar pretends that the four gospels as we now have 
them were composed so early as that. Paul's creed was 
therefore the first or original written creed of Christianity. 
Indeed, it might seem that Paul had heard of the signs 
and wonders which had begun to form as an aureole 
around Jesus, and in this light we may understand his 
clear declaration that he " will not dare to speak of any 
things save those which Christ wrought through him ", and 
that he has his glorifying in Christ Jesus " in things per- 
taining to God" (Rom. 15: 17-18); not those pertaining to 
men, such as raising dead folk, curing demoniacs, healing 
cripples, and the like. This seems a protest, when coupled 
with his silence as to the miracles, &c., against the stories 
of prodigies which were being related about Jesus, and 
might seem a repudiation of them. 

But the authorships of all the books of the New Testa- 
ment are disputed or not substantiated save the seven as 
aforesaid which are conceded to Paul. From the main 
point of view it is better that these other books should not 
have been written by those who knew Jesus and were asso- 
ciated with him, and who were familiar with the incidents 
of his life, than that they should have been written by 
those who knew him, and knew the incidents, yet remained 
silent as to them. Thus, if we say that James and Jude, 
John and Peter, wrote the epistles attributed to them, their 
silence is even more perplexing than that of Paul. The 
four were the close friends of Jesus ; James and Jude being 
his brothers. Peter had seen Jesus walk on the sea (Mat. 
14: 28-29) ; he and John, with James the son of Zebedee, 
were witnesses of the revivification of the daughter of 
Jairus (Mark 5 : 37-40 ; Luke 8 : 51 *) ; and the same three 
witnessed the transfiguration, saw Moses and Elijah con- 
versing with Jesus, and heard the voice out of the cloud 

♦ " Put them all out " is an interpolation of Luke 8 ; 54, omitted in 
the Revised Edition. Luke's interpolator seems to have followed 2 
Kgs. 4:33. 



242 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

which said "This is my beloved Son" (Mat. 17: 1-13; 
Mark 9 : 2-13 ; Luke 9 : 28-36). More than this, James and 
Jude, to whom certain epistles are attributed, as brothers 
of Jesus, though never perhaps his followers (John 7:5), 
must have been familiar with the events of his birth and 
works, and the marvels which attended his death. Yet in 
neither the epistle of James, nor that of Jude, or i Peter, or 
the three of John, or in the Apocalypse by John, is there 
any allusion to the nativity or the miracles, or any event 
in the career of Jesus. In 2 Peter we have only one of 
these (i : 16-18), extracted doubtless from writings which 
had become "Scriptures" (3 : 16), perhaps a century after 
"the fathers fell asleep " (2 : 4), and when Christ's second 
coming and "the last days" were so discounted as to require 
new arguments (2 : 8-9) ; for Origen in the third century is 
the first who refers to 2 Peter, pronouncing it "doubtful." 

In "The Acts" Peter is said to have declared that Jesus 
wrought many works and mighty wonders and signs (2: 
22) ; or, as put in another place (10: 38), went about doing 
good and healing demoniacs ; and by using the word 
"powers" Paul may also more than once seem to refer to 
these ; but there is no specific mention of any miracle per- 
formed by Jesus in the New Testament apart from the four 
gospels. 

It may be urged that the epistles are admonitory and 
exhortatory ; pastoral ; stimulating faith in facts already 
known to all Christians, if not to all the world. This 
view is not, however, supported by the recapitulation 
of ancient history set forth in the nth chapter of Hebrews ; 
or with the speeches of Stephen and Peter and Paul in The 
Acts ; with Paul's several reports of his own history ; all of 
which set forth more or less the exploits of ancient or new 
heroes and saints ; statements which must have been famil- 
iar to the Jews to whom they were told. The single 
earthly achievement of Jesus, claimed for him in these 
speeches, save those ascribed to Peter, or in any of the 



THE SILENCE OF PAUL AS TO THE LIFE OF JESUS. 243 

epistles, is that he had arisen from the tomb ; a doctrine 
which seems to have originated in Ps. i6: lo, where the 
cHasid was not to see Ma-Shech-ath. This averment is 
made frequently ; insomuch that it is the more remarkable 
that the assertion is lacking that he had raised up others 
from the dead ; particularly as, though it may have been 
known to the Jews, his "power" in this respect could not 
have been know^n to the Gentiles unless preached by the 
apostles. Indeed, to din into the ears of the Jews that 
Jesus had arisen, after they had condemned and executed 
him, never failed to exasperate them ; whereas, had they 
been merely reminded of the humane deeds and lofty logia 
of Jesus, the effect on them might have been more persua- 
sive. Certainly this latter would be the method of a 
prudent evangelist who at this day sought converts among 
the Jews. 

Besides, that was an age when achievements in the un- 
natural or supernatural were readily accredited to holy and 
even to prominent men, and were easily believed by the 
multitude. Tacitus, Josephus, Plutarch, Suetonius, and 
other cultivated persons, who lived about that time, had 
faith in or at least recorded prodigies and magical works. 
And a theology which depended so much as that of Chris- 
tianity on the merits of one personage must necessarily 
have its full share of these. But it is curious to note that 
in its very earliest stage of propagation the averment of 
them in the case of Jesus is absent from writings which 
came from or are accredited to those who were closest to 
him, and found only in later accounts by gospel authors 
w^hose names are wholly supposititious. As for Paul it 
might appear from his own ardent avowal that had he ever 
heard of these prodigies done for Jesus and by him he 
(Paul) would not have hesitated to use them for the 
greater glory of God (Rom. 3 : 7-8) ; and his silence about 
them comes with the force of absolute denial. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

THE SILENCE OF JESUS AS TO HIS BIRTH. 

TO these facts must be added the silence of Jesus him- 
self touching the wonders of his birth and baptism ; to 
say nought of the silence of his mother, and that of the 
people of Nazareth and Bethlechem. Jesus never once refers 
to any of the glorious incidents recorded in the two first 
chapters of the Matthew and the Luke. It does not appear 
that he ever visited Beth-Lechem. Even the humble mother 
who bore him, who had been distinguished by Almighty 
God, Creator of the Universes, above all the mortals of this 
world, is spoken to or treated by her divine son with auster- 
ity, if not rudeness (Mat. 12 : 46-50; Mark 3 : 31-35; Luke 
8: 19-21; John 2:4; 19: 25-27), on every occasion of 
their recorded meetings. 

And why should Jesus be dumb as to the annunciation 
and nativity ? Was it possible for him not to have known 
of them? He even fails to assert them when at Jerusalem 
his influence or usefulness was sought to be destroyed by 
their terming him a Samaritan (John 8: 48). His mother 
had "pondered them in her heart" (Luke 2: 19), and 
surely she could not have withheld from him the knowledge 
of the visit of angels to her, or the obesiance and gifts of 
the wise men to his cradle. If, indeed, it were at all prob- 
able that she failed to supply him with this information, 
some surviving shepherd at Beth-Lechem, had Jesus gone 
there, must have been fully as communicative of what won- 
ders had been seen and heard at his birth as the shepherds 
were to others at the time (Luke 2 : 17-18). It cannot be 

(244) 



THE SILENCE OF JESUS AS TO HIS BIRTH. 245 

that the authors of the Matthew and Luke could know of 
these amazing occurrences, and Jesus not know, and cer- 
tainly their accounts are too widely variant for him to have 
told more than one of them. But no one ever mentions the 
subject to him, and he never mentions a syllable of it to his 
audiences or to his followers ; no, not even to the beloved 
disciple, if we are to ascribe the John Gospel to him, for 
the dead silence of that treatise, like that of the Mark, 
shows that neither of the writers thereof could have heard, 
and then omitted the most signal evidences of their master's 
divinity. This would be the more notable as to John, if he 
wrote the John Gospel, since the mother of Jesus, after his 
death, dwelt with John (John 19: 27), and was more likely 
to ** ponder them in her heart" and relate them after the 
marvelous terrors of the Crucifixion and Resurrection of 
her son had confirmed or illustrated them. At the return 
from the Ascension, when she and her other sons were 
present (The Acts i : 14), and when the mystery was ful- 
filled and crowned, an occasion was offered highly?' suitable 
for her to have told the origin of that one in whose name 
the assemblage had met ; yet she preserved her peace ; so 
that it may be she did not even tell her son Jesus or the 
disciple he loved; in which case it cannot be that the 
authors of the Matthew and the Luke got their variant 
narratives from her. 

Why Jesus failed to avail himself of the marvels of his 
birth, if he knew them, may be due to his meekness or 
modesty ; though this view is not compatible with asser- 
tions he made of himself. But as the story of his birth has 
been of such immense value to the Church for eighteen 
centuries, as it has been so efficacious in its appeal to human 
admiration and sympathy ever since it was promulgated, it 
would seem that he could have used it to great advantage 
in his own preaching. It cannot be said that if the story 
had come from his own lips his hearers would not have be- 
lieved him, since it is implicitly believed by countless 



246 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

millions when it comes from two authors whose very names 
are not subscribed to it, and who must have gotten it at 
second hand ; who recorded it many years after it happened, 
and which two authors are at positive discord as to most of 
its details. It cannot be that he was not bold enough to 
make it known, for, though represented as now and then 
fleeing or hiding from the Jews (Mat. 12: 15-16; Johns: 
13-16 ; 8 : 59 ; 10 : 39 ; 11: 8, 54 ; 12 : 36), yet in the John 
we are told how he avowed to them " Before Abram was, I 
Am," " I and my Father are one", "The Father is in me 
and I in Him;" while, at his trial, though the Luke (22: 
67-70) makes him evasive, the other two synoptics say he 
declared he was the expected Christ (Mat. 26: 63-64; Mark 
14: 61-62). He claimed that the prophets and Scriptures 
would be fulfilled in his death (Mat. 24: 54-56), but he 
never pointed to the annunciation and the incidents of his 
birth as connected with such fulfillment, though a child 
born of a virgin, spoken of in the Isaiah, is one central fact 
which connects Jesus with such prophecy. That Jesus did 
not know aught of the theophany is a postulate which to 
most Christians presents more difiiculties than to say that 
he knew it and failed to allude to it ; yet his silence as to it, 
his harshness to his mother, the unbelief of his brothers 
(John* 7: 5), &c., strongly indicate his ignorance of it, or 
theirs. 

Greater, perhaps, are the difficulties which press on us if 
it be supposed that his mother had forgotten or become 
indifferent to those wonders. The great things done to her 
(Luke 1 : 49) had been specified by the angel Gabriel, even 
to the name of the son that was to be born, and the throne 
of David which that son was to occupy (Luke i : 31-32, 35). 
"The Magnificat" which she sung and the sayings she 
kept in her heart (2 : 51) fully imply that she was aware 
of the glorious future which awaited her son. From the 
part, however, which she took in the life of Jesus it must 
seem that Mary could not have at all realized what her 



THE SILENCE OF JESUS AS TO HIS BIRTH. 247 

illustrious function had been. It is and must ever be a 
lasting regret that the inspired authors made such scant 
notice of the ** Mother of God", since her cult is at this day 
more fervid perhaps than that of her son. Apart from the 
narratives in the Matthew and the Luke of the annuncia- 
tion, &c., she comes only once in view in each of the syn- 
optics, once in the Acts, twice in the John. She and her 
other sons went with Jesus from Cana to Capernaum, but 
that she was not accustomed to attend his ministry is cer- 
tain from the solitary and peculiar account of the one 
instance that is recorded (Mat. 12 : 46-50 ; Mark 3: 31-35 ; 
Luke 8 : 19-21 ). Then we have the extraordinary evidence 
that " even his brothers did not believe on him " (John 7 : 
5) ; a fact which would seem to prove beyond dispute that 
their mother had never revealed to them that family historj^ 
which leads many millions at this day to believe Jesus to 
be God. It was after the crucifixion that she and his 
brothers appear among the converts (The Acts, i : 14). 

And if the people of Nazareth had ever heard of the In- 
carnation they certainly had forgotten that most wondrous 
event in human annals. When Jesus ventured to preach 
there he offended them (Mat. 13: 54-58; Mark 6: 1-6); 
and from the Luke we learn that their wrath was aroused 
for that he claimed the Christhood, and that they took him 
out to kill him for this pretension (4: 16-31). It is the 
Luke which locates the annunciation at Nazareth ; and the 
visit of Gabriel must have been very secret, and kept very 
confidentially, else the people there could not have been so 
exasperated, perhaps so astonished, at Jesus's claim. His 
mother, we infer, did not dwell at Nazareth at the time of 
this visit there, but all his sisters did, and the inhabitants 
of the village knew all the family, yet seem wholly ignorant 
of the theophany or any peculiarity of the divine group. 
In this connection must be noted the strange testimony of 
the Mark (6: 5) that Jesus ''could do no mighty work 
there", and no reason for this inability is given by that 



248 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

authority ; but the Matthew positively traverses this state- 
ment by sayihg " he did not many mighty works there ", 
implying that he did some of these, the partial failure being 
"because of their unbelief" (12 : 58) ; a reason at general 
discord with the purpose of "signs", as it was these that 
Jesus relied on (John 4: 48) to convince even John the 
Baptist (Luke 7 : 22), and the express motive given for the 
raising of Lazarus, which was to make the disciples and the 
multitude believe he (Jesus) was sent from God (John 1 1 : 
14-15, 42). But in the Mark (6 : 6) we find that at Naza- 
reth Jesus " marvelled at their unbelief " ; a fact referable 
to his knowledge that they knew of the theophany, if this 
can be supposed in the teeth of the fact that the author of 
the Mark himself does not appear ever to have heard of it. 
As for Beth-Lechem, and its inhabitants and shepherds, 
though the village was only six or seven miles from Jeru- 
salem, no one there ever came forward- to follow Jesus, or to 
bear witness in his behalf as to the superhuman wonders 
which occurred at his birth there. The slaughter of so many 
"innocents" by order of Herod (Mat. 2: 16) might have 
recalled Jesus, though painfully, to their memory, at least 
as giving to their village the celebrity of Jerusalem, which 
in the days of human sacrifices had been filled with the 
" blood of innocents " (Jere. 19: 4). So, they knew of the 
visit of the men of the East, no doubt, of which their scrip- 
tures had a parallel somewhat in the visit of the " ambassa- 
dors of the princes of Babylon" to see the "wonder" done 
in Hezekiah's time (2 Chron. 32: 31; 2 K. 20: 12), and 
which cost him his sons (20 : 18).* 

* The Sephar-im (trans, "letters*') sent to cHezekiah (2K. 20; 
12), who showed these "letters" his treasures, were easily under- 
stood as Sophos or " wise " men by the Greek writer of the Matthew. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

THE FAILURE OF JESUS TO IMPRESS HIMSELF. 

AND what success had Jesus during his life time? 
His preaching is believed to have extended over a 
period of about three years. He had taught the most hu- 
mane precepts ; though it must be conceded he was at times 
fiercely denunciator}^ ; he had led a chaste life ; he had 
healed the sick, the mad, the blind, the lame ; he had raised 
from death to life three persons ; he had controlled the 
laws of nature by walking on the sea and by stilling the 
storm ; he had even been spoken to once from the clouds 
and once "out of Heaven." 

It must seem that the giving life to one person, who had 
been dead so long that putrefaction had set in (John 1 1 : 
39), if that were all he did, would sufl&ce to carry conviction 
of his superhuman character or at least his superior merits. 
Such certainly would be the effect of the reversal or control 
of the laws of nature by anyone in any part of the world in 
any age. And this particular wonder was not wrought 
"in a corner" (John 11 : 41 ; 12: 9-11, 17-18), though 
neither the three other gospels, nor Peter, James, Jude, 
Paul, or any other canonical writer whatever, has noticed 
it or alluded to it. 

Alike notorious as this extraordinary miracle of Lazarus 
is the prodigy recorded in the John (12 : 28-31) which hap- 
pened within Jerusalem or near that town. " The multitude 
stood by and heard it," says the Revised Version ; and they 
could not have misunderstood the voice or words, for Jesus 
told them that it came "for their sakes." It is both strange 

(249) 



250 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

and unfortunate that this most astonishing occurrence is 
wholly omitted b)^ all the other writers of the New Testa- 
ment. Even more strange, however, is that, at the conclu- 
sion of this wondrous scene, Jesus found it necessary to 
hide from the multitude that heard the "voice out of 
Heaven ", and for the reason that they still " believed not 
on him" (John 12: 36-37), even though the voice out of 
Heaven had spoken to him " for their sakes " ; and the 
monstrous reason given for their unbelief is that God had 
blinded their eyes and hearts in order that they should not 
believe. 

But with all these remarkable evidences of his superhu- 
man power, and of the recognition of him by the Deity ; 
all occurring in a petty country of ten thousand square 
miles ; the success of the personal ministry of Jesus comes 
to us in precise figures which amaze by their limitation. 
All his converts or followers only numbered one hundred 
and twenty (The Acts i: 15); all could assemble in one 
house (2 : 2) ; all were from Galilee (i : 11 ; 2 : 7) ; and of 
this little congregation the most eminent of its leaders were 
two ''unlearned and ignorant men" (4: 13). This census 
was just after the Ascension, and at that observance of 
Pentecost which doubtless brought them to Jerusalem. 
The assertion of Paul (i Cor. 15: 6) that, arising from 
death, Jesus "appeared to above five hundred brethren", 
is not elsewhere recorded ; and not even repeated by himself 
when he had occasion to do so (The Acts 13: 31); while it 
conflicts with the "all" of The Acts (2: 2), and could not 
have been known at the time of its occurrence to Paul, else 
he would not just subsequently have " breathed threaten- 
ings and slaughter" against a brotherhood so divinely 
favored; and besides, on questions of fact which he con- 
ceived as necessary to " the glory of God ", Paul frankly 
admits (Rom. 3: 7) that he is not to be relied on. 

A number of passages in the four Gospels declare that 
many believed on Jesus. These are more generally found 



THE FAILURE OF JESUS TO IMPRESS HIMSELF. 2$ I 

in the John, though he seems (12: 37) also to contradict 
them all ; while it is in this Gospel that most frequent men- 
tion is made of the hiding of Jesus, or his escaping from 
the Jews, whose determination to kill him is often averred 
in the narrative. 

It may well be reckoned that Jesus reached his highest 
point of popularity or success at the time of his " public 
entry" into Jerusalem. This event is told in all the four 
Gospels (Mat. 21: 1-16; Mark 11: i-ii ; Luke 19: 29-44; 
John 12: 12-19). The "multitude" which the three syn- 
optics say sung Hosannahs to Jesus are all claimed by the 
Luke to have been " disciples." The John says the popu- 
lace went out of the town to meet Jesus because he had 
raised Lazarus from death; but the Matthew contradicts 
this statement, and impliedly the whole Lazarus story, or 
at least its prior occurrence at Beth-Any, two miles away, 
by the notable remark that ""all the city " asked as to Jesus 
"Who is this?" and this wide difference may arise from 
the idea of the John that Jesus dwelt or ministered about 
Jerusalem, while the synoptics keep him nearly all the time 
in Galilee. In any case this effort of Jesus or his biogra- 
phers to identify him with the Zechariah (9: 9) figure led 
by its gleam of success to that riot in the temple (Mat. 21 : 
12; Mark 11: 15-18; Luke 19: 45-47; also John 2: 14-16) 
which rightly aroused the civic authorities, for Jesus was 
then a law-breaker. 

In the John (6: 66) we find that at one time, owing to 
the lofty claims of Jesus, " many of his disciples went back, 
and walked no more with him." This statement conflicts 
with the account that the day before Jesus had wrought 
two great miracles, that of walking on water, and that of 
feeding five thousand people with five loaves and two fish 
(2 K. 4: 42-44); the former of which is related in the 
Matthew and Mark and John, and the latter by all the four. 
And the " falling-away " also conflicts with the story the 
John alone tells (6: 15) that because of the feeding of the 



252 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

five thousand in such manner the people were about to 
" take him by force and make him a king " ; and why should 
any fall away under such circumstances ? 

Curious, too, is the failure of Jesus to acquire the follow- 
ing of John the Baptist. If the two were cousins ; if the 
missions of the two was a divine sequence ; if John baptised 
Jesus; if the prodigies of that ceremony were seen and 
heard by John ; if he had pointed out to those about him 
that Jesus was "the Lamb of God who taketh away the 
sins of the world" (John i : 32-34), or even the modified 
statement made at ^non (John 3 : 25-30), it must seem 
that, not only the disciples of John, but that subordinate 
himself would have joined Jesus. On the contrary, years 
later, we find his sect disputing with Jesus (Mat. 9: 14; 
Mark 2:18; Luke 5 : 33) ; that they had different practices 
or rites, and that years and years later they still formed a 
separate sect (The Acts 18: 25; 19: 3). And this latter 
statement is confirmed by the message to Jesus from John, 
then in prison at the close of his career, asking of Jesus 
whether he was the one who was to come to redeem Judea 
(Mat. 11: 2-3; Luke 7: 18-24) > to which Jesus did not re- 
ply by reminding John of the marvels of the baptism or 
of his own personal obesiance to him (Jesus) as "the 
Lamb of God", &c. Hence the connection between the 
two seems to limit itself to the baptism of Jesus by John. 
And the effort of the John Gospel in this matter seems to 
be to get the sect of John, many years later, to join that of 
Jesus. This view derives support from the fact that 
neither Paul's nor any of the other epistles allude to John, 
though in The Acts (13: 24-25: 19: 4) Paul is recorded as 
speaking of him. 

And we have seen that "even his brothers did not believe 
on him " till perhaps after the Crucifixion and Resurrec- 
tion and Ascension. They are never named among the 
disciples or followers. Their adherence was doubtless 
gained by the resentment they felt at the execution of their 



THE FAILURE OF JESUS TO IMPRESS HIMSELF. 253 

brother; not by his miracles, or by his logia, or by the 
wonders wrought at his birth and in his behalf. 

The seventy or seventy-two (for the manuscripts differ), 
which the Luke (lo: 1-20) says were appointed and sent 
forth, are not mentioned in the other Gospels, or other New 
Testament literature. The account seems based on a 
curious Jewish story (Num. 11: 16-30) where Jehoah puts 
his Ruack (trans, "spirit"; also '* breath", "wind") on 
seventy or seventy-two elders at Taberah or Kiber-oth ha- 
Tav-ah, which was not perhaps "graves of the lust" but 
the Tav or "mark" (Ezek. 9: 4-7) set on the forehead, 
which was perhaps some cross-mark used as a sign of selec- 

ftion in the mysteries of the Kabiri, and this Tav 
or Tau (the Hebrew letter "T" at the end of their 
alphabet) was the Egyptian symbol of life, per- 
haps of " the perfected ", borne in the right hand 
of their gods, and used by the early Christians in- 
stead of the plain cross, but still the key of St. 
Peter, though originally perhaps a charm against evil 
from the four quarters or regions of Earth ; while seventy- 
two was the number of those who conspired with Set or 
Typhon against Osiris, for the latter was perhaps the Kabir 
after death, as Kabor is "sepulchre", but also Chebar or 
Chebar-eth (trans, "glory" or "glorified"); for Set or 
Typhon (Arabic Tuphon^ " flood") was a Canaanite deity, 
and formerly the war-god in parts of Egypt, but afterwards 
the evil or adverse principle, or the Hebrew Sat-an (trans, 
"adversary"), and perhaps Toph-et to whom children were 
burned, and same as Moloch. Howbeit, it was not the 
seventy or seventy-two who met after the Ascension (The 
Acts 1 : 12-14), but the twelve, less Judas. 

If we allow that the terror inspired by the severe pro- 
ceedings against Jesus caused dismay among his followers, 
and their dispersion on the night of his capture, we find 
(Luke 24: 52-53) that confidence was quickly restored, for 
the disciples returned to the temple after the Ascension, 



254 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

and were there continually " praising God " ; and Peter, 
fifty days after the Ascension, spoke very openly and 
boldly (The Acts 2: 6, 14) in Jerusalem, and soon "filled" 
the town with his teaching (5: 28). Nor can it well be 
that the main body of the converts of Jesus had gone back 
into Galilee, as nought of that appears, and the number 
seems explicitly stated to embrace the entire sect as present 
at the Pentecost meeting when the Spirit came upon all of 
them. Moreover, the astonishing prodigies which occurred 
at the Crucifixion and Resurrection, such as two mighty 
earthquakes, the appearance "to many" of saints from 
the grave, the unnatural darkness of three hours, the re- 
appearance of their Master for a period of some days, &c., 
must not only have tended to keep his followers in line, 
but also to bring in recruits; else these wondrous phenom- 
ena were a waste of energy, and of no practical purpose at 
the time, though arguments more potent for the conversion 
of sinners are rarely presented. It seems true, however, 
that his own selected twelve, all but one of whom are now 
our leading saints, " forsook him and fled " when Jesus was 
caught, though they more than an)'- other men who ever 
lived had less reason to doubt him, as they had witnessed 
the divine manifestations in his behalf, had been present at 
his many reversals of physical processes, and listened to 
the lofty sentiments he uttered (The Acts 10: 39) ; and yet 
even the vehement Peter, the beloved John, the ambitious 
James, were no whit truer than the cripples he had cured 
or the hungry he had fed or the dead he had raised to life ; 
and yet it would be unfair to a whole people to place their 
moral standard as low as that of Peter who denied him, or 
that of Is-Cariot who "priced " (^le-Kareth, Zech. 11 : 13) 
him, and then cast the thirty pieces to the potter (v. 14). 

It has been herein observed how easily Peter made con- 
verts by curing a cripple, and how Paul and Barnabas were 
believed at Lystra to be deities because the former did the 
like. It may also be noted how Simon the Magician, 



THE FAILURE OF JESUS TO IMPRESS HIMSELF, 255 

though he merely practiced sorceries at Samaria, was given 
heed to by all, " from the least to the greatest " (The Acts 
8: 9-11). Great success also crowned there the preaching 
of Phillip, and the miracles he there performed, as related 
in the same chapter ; for Simon himself believed and re- 
ceived baptism. But the claims for Jesus as to his labors 
in that country are conflicting (Luke 9: 52-56; John 4: 39- 
42), and he forbade his disciples to go there (Mat. 10: 5) ; 
nor does it seem that any Samaritans were among his fol- 
lowers. In the after centuries, and even at the present 
day, flattering stories have been told of eloquent "revi- 
valists" who prevailed on many without the help of mir- 
acles ; and the most famous result attained in this way was 
that of Peter the Hermit and Walter the Penny less, who 
persuaded the fanatical millions of Europe, and even kings 
and nobles, to waste their lives and treasures in a foolish 
errand ; and, if the tale of Jonah is fact instead of allegory, 
we may see that even the Shemite mind is open to persua- 
sion without the miracles of Jesus or the sword of Mo- 
hammed. 

Wherefore the surprise with which the thoughtful reader 
meets the statement that the whole number of Christians at 
the close of the ministry of Jesus, after all his mighty 
"signs*' and "wonders", was only one hundred and 
twenty ! And this number is in accord with his friendless 
death and unanimous condemnation ; yielding to us as it 
does necessarily an utter reversal of all our ideas of the 
man, or of all our ideals of humanity. If the number 
were multiplied by ten, by an hundred ; yea, by ten thou- 
sand; one must still be left in amazement at the signal 
failure of a divine personality to impress itself on a co- 
temporary people ; and this too in an age when credulity 
was co-extensive with ignorance, and among a people will- 
ing for and expectant of divine interposition. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

SILENCE OF THE EPISTLES AS TO THE LOGIA. 

THE marvelous birth and works of Jesus, and the celes- 
tial recognition and terrestrial phenomena in his be- 
half, did not suffice, therefore, first, to save him from civic 
and popular condemnation and contumely and death ; nor, 
second, were these marvels of either kind set up in his 
defence at the crisis of the fate he met with so much 
anguish as to reproach God for forsaking him ; nor, thirdly, 
are they remembered or recited in the speeches or writings 
ascribed to Stephen and Peter, to John and Paul, to James 
and Jude ; nor fourthly, did Jesus or his mother allude to 
or recall to anyone their knowledge of the nativity ; nor, 
lastly, did ought that was done for or by him yield to 
him any gratifying measure of popular success during his 
life. 

Let us stop then to consider his logia. 

It might well be expected that these, or the more strik- 
ing and original of them, would be indelibly impressed on 
the memory of the apostles, and incorporated in every 
single writing of canonic authority. The sayings of Jesus, 
however, are most scantily found repeated, and are almost 
exclusively confined to the four gospels. In propagating 
the fame and glory of Jesus, among those who had never 
seen or heard of him, it would seem impossible for those 
who did this to omit the moral sentiments and social pre- 
cepts he taught, or perhaps the severe invectives he pro- 
nounced. His brothers James and Jude, Paul, or others 

(256) 



SILENCE OF THE EPISTLES AS TO THE LOGIA. 257 

who were not his disciples, might fail to cite or quote 
these; but it is not easy to understand how or why John 
and Peter, if they wrote a single page, could so fail. 

We of the after centuries are expected to obey and fol- 
low the words of Jesus in our faith and in our practices. 
It must seem that the proselytes of the first century, who 
were certainly in most part without any written account of 
Jesus, should also have been familiarized with his sayings 
for their guidance and salvation. But the epistles incor- 
porated in the New Testament, full as they are of pastoral 
exhortations as to rules of conduct, even to minute domes- 
tic details, are singularly sterile in citations of such ex- 
hortations as coming from the mouth of Jesus. A careful 
research is rewarded perhaps in rare and doubtful cases. 
The Romans (13: 8), the i Peter (i: 22) and the i John 
(3; II, 23) do indeed quote the new commandment thrice 
found given by Jesus in the John only (13: 34; 14: 12, 17), 
"that ye love one another "; and the i Thessalonians (4: 9) 
quotes the "Love thy neighbor as thyself" which Jesus 
himself quotes (Mat. 22: 39; Luke 10: 27-28) from Leviti- 
cus (19: 18). The James, which nowhere mentions Jesus 
save in the opening verse, and one other place, has an 
abbreviation of Mat. 5: 34-37 (James 5: 12), but does not 
quote the new commandment, though referring expressly 
to that of Leviticus (2 : 8). The i John seems to refer to 
the new commandment (2: 8-10). Peter, in a verbal re- 
port (The Acts 11: 16), quotes a saying of Jesus, not 
found in the gospels, but in The Acts (i : 5), much like 
the words of John Baptist (Mat. 3:11; John i : 33) ; and 
Peter also has allusion to the words of Jesus at Nazareth 
found in the Luke 4: 18 (The Acts 10: 38). Paul, indeed, 
while he repeats it (Rom. 13 : 8) does not know that Jesus 
had ever given it as a new commandment, or perhaps de- 
nies it ; expressly declaring that if there be any other com- 
mandment than those of the decalogue it is one in Leviticus, 
which he twice cites (Rom. 13: 9; Gal. 5: 14). His ex- 



258 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

quisite chapter on brotherly love (i Cor. 13 :), in which he 
might most appropriately have interwoven the " Love ye 
one another ", wholly omits that saying. 

The Lord's Prayer is nowhere referred to as such out- 
side the three synoptics (Mat. 6: 9-15; Mark 11: 25-26; 
Luke 11: 2-4). The beloved John must have heard this 
prayer, but the book John does not mention it. The 
canonic epistles often mention praying and prayer, and 
their failure to mention the teaching of Jesus as to prayer 
is not explainable. 

The Sermon on the Mount (Mat. 5 : ; Luke 6: 20 &c.) is 
also unknown to other parts of the New Testament. Paul 
expresses some kindred sentiments, but he does not ascribe 
these to Jesus, nor use the like phraseology. 

It might certainly be expected that Paul would cite the 
Golden Rule. Before the time of Jesus this precept is said 
to have been uttered by Hillel, father or grandfather of the 
Gamaliel who taught Paul ; but neither as from Jesus nor 
Hillel does Paul ever allude to it. Other of the writers or 
alleged writers, such as James, Peter, Jude, John, must have 
heard Jesus use the precept, yet they are silent as to it. 
Full as all the epistles are of admonition and exhortation, 
it would appear that this guide to social conduct would 
be freely used, but only two even of the gospels mention 
it (Mat. 7: 12; Luke 6: 31), and it is these two which in 
their same chapters report the wise saying as to the mote 
and beam in the eye. 

The invectives uttered by Jesus against Pharisees and 
others, so frequent in the gospels, are not generally perti- 
nent to the epistles, and silence as to them might thus be 
accounted for. An opposite sentiment, "Father, forgive 
them, for they know not what they do ", found only in the 
Luke (23 : 34), and omitted from the earlier copies of that 
book, and probably an interpolation from the similar ex- 
pression of Stephen (The Acts 7: 60), may well be found 
missing from the epistles, as it is from the other gospels. 



SILENCE OF THE EPISTLES AS TO THE LOGIA. 259 

That all the details of the Crucifixion, as variously told 
in the four gospels, should be wholly left in silence by the 
epistolary authors is the more singular, since Paul himself 
must have been in Jerusalem at the time it occurred ; and 
we know that John and Peter were at the time in Jeru- 
salem. 

Two rites or practices of Jesus, baptism and the sacra- 
ment, are preserved in the writings of Paul; he or his 
disciples baptised, and he also amplifies the words of Jesus 
at the Last Supper (i Cor. ii: 23-26), which words are 
given in the three synoptics (Mat. 26 : 26-28 ; Mark 14: 22- 
24 ; Luke 22 : 19-20) ; but neither Paul nor the other writers 
make mention of the washing of feet, which the John 
gives (18 : 4-15) at some length, and apparently as a sub- 
stitute for the story of the sacrament. 

It really must seem that the authors of the books of the 
New Testament, other than the four gospels, knew as little 
of the logia of Jesus as thej^ did of the incidents of his life 
and death. Had these authors heard these sayings, or even 
got them at second hand, it cannot well be doubted that 
they would have been both used and useful. Paul, indeed, 
is said to have gotten one, not elsewhere found, which he 
employs with happy effect on this age and perhaps on the 
proselytes of his own time (The Acts 20: 35), and surely 
he would have used others had he been familiar with 
them. 

If it be answered that most of the epistles were extant 
before the gospel narratives were written, one reply is that 
the epistles written subsequently are equally barren of the 
sayings of Jesus. Now, in their ascribed speeches, Stephen, 
Peter, Paul, James, show that they are acquainted with 
Jewish history and literature, and in the writings of the 
three latter there are repeated quotations from and allusions 
to these. So with the "Hebrews", and other books of dis- 
puted canonicity. In speaking to Jews it might be we 
could not expect the logia of Jesus to be cited, however 



26o SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

impossible it would be to omit the miracles and prodigies ; 
in speaking to an assemblage of Gentiles the apostles 
would have found the logia to be of great service ; and cer- 
tainly in writing to or addressing the followers or pros- 
elytes the sayings of the Master would claim a place 
conspicuous above all others. And that the gospel narra- 
tives were not extant would only supply a more imperative 
reason for this latter course. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

THE RESURRECTION AND ASCENSION. 

IF, however, the sayings and works of Jesus, and the 
wonders of his birth, are scantily quoted or wholly 
slighted in the writings of the New Testament outside the 
gospel narratives, this is more fully the case as to the 
awful phenomena and the pathetic or other incidents of his 
death and resurrection and ascension. This is the less to 
be wondered over, since the John Gospel, which says that 
John was standing by the cross, does not record the dark- 
ness of three hours related by the three synoptics, or the 
rending of the temple veil, or the confession of the centu- 
rion; and the Matthew alone takes note of the mighty 
earthquake, the rended rocks, and the appearance of the 
dead saints ; as that gospel also alone tells of the second 
earthquake at the resurrection. If John wrote the Apoca- 
lypse he might, it would seem, have made use there of these 
prodigies in that startling book. Paul was a young man, 
and must have been at Jerusalem when they happened, as 
it was the Passover feast, and he "an Hebrew of the 
Hebrews", yet he never alludes to them in any manner. 
We know that all the disciples were in or near the towuj 
and even present at the death of their Master (Luke 23 : 
49), yet Peter, in none of his speeches, nor in the epistles 
assigned to him, says aught of these wonders. The 
brothers of Jesus, James and Jude, who were in the town 
certainly forty days later (The Acts i : 14) do not mention 
them in the epistles to which their names are fixed. Jesus, 
after the resurrection, points to his wounds, but not to these 
prodigies, as evidences in his behalf. (261) 



262 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE, 

The appalling wonders of the crucifixion and of the 
resurrection could have been used, it must seem, and with 
signal eifect, by Stephen and Peter and Paul in their 
speeches ; if, indeed, the populace of Jerusalem had been 
so perverse as to hold out against such supernatural evi- 
dences; evidences they themselves must have heard or 
witnessed at the time. In his speech at Csesaria (The Acts 
lo: 34-43) Peter had an opportunity to tell an assemblage, 
a little distant from the cross and the sepulchre, of these 
prodigies, but his claims for Jesus on that occasion are not 
immoderate when we consider that they are reported by 
the author of The Acts, a generation or two later. And 
Paul, journeying into more remote parts, in order to induce 
men to espouse the new faith, while he mentions the death 
and resurrection of Jesus, wholly ignores the phenomenal 
features of these, though it must seem that nought better 
would have served such purpose with peoples whose several 
sacred annals were made up of prodigies. 

The speech of Stephen is lengthier than any other left to 
us by the author of the Acts (7:), comprising as it does 52 
verses. He is one of the first officials of the new sect 
when they organized shortly after the death of Jesus. 
Stephen must have seen and heard Jesus, and was doubtless 
familiar with much that had chanced to him. Stephen's 
speech is in answer to charges preferred by false and 
suborned witnesses, who must even have exaggerated what 
he was teaching ; yet his answer shows that he was not 
spreading the merits and renown of Jesus, but was attack- 
ing the fetishism of the Jews respecting their temple, and 
thus undermining the authority o f their priesthood. But, 
while reciting with some detail the history of their past, 
and especially incidents in the life of Mosheh, with all of 
which his hearers must have been familiar, no account of 
the career of Jesus is given, and Stephen only claims that 
Jesus was a predicted prophet or righteous one, whom, in 
pursuance of their usual course in regard to prophets, they 



THE RESURRECTION AND ASCENSION. 263 

had not only murdered, but had betrayed their nationality 
by delivering him to the Romans (Luke 24 : 20). Stephen 
not only fails to recall to his audience any of the wonders 
at the death and rising of Jesus, but does not claim that 
he had arisen, much less that he had ascended alive to 
Heaven. 

An earthquake in Judea was a very rare occurrence ; so 
uncommon, indeed, that those which chanced in the reigns 
of Uzziah and Jereboam II. were used as a time-mark 
(Amos I : i) and as an illustration (Zech. 14 : 5) ; as also 
Josephus (Antiq. 9: 10), who perhaps quotes from the 
Zechariah. The one recorded in the Matthew as occurring 
at the crucifixion resembles the one told of Elijah (i Kgs. 
19: 11-12) who was to forerun the Messiah (Mai. 4:5), and 
therefore was entitled to no greater honors ; and the one 
which rolled the stone from the grave, and the one which 
unbolted the prison of Paul and Barnabas at Philippi (The 
Acts 16: 26), have functions in common. That such 
phenomena were not frequent renders the silence of all the 
other writers as to these two of the Matthew the more per- 
plexing. If, on the other hand, earthquakes were frequent 
at that time in Judea, then these two lose somewhat their 
value and significance. 

As to the other incidents at the crucifixion and resurrec- 
tion, there is a like silence on the part of all the writers and 
speakers apart from the gospel narratives. The "It is 
finished ", told in the John, seems the " accomplished war- 
fare " {Maleah ZebeaK) of the Isaiah (40: 2), and appears 
in the Revelations (16 : 17; 21 : 6). The " I thirst ", found 
in the John only, might suggest or be suggestive of the 
same passages of the Apocalypse, but is referable to 
Psalms (69 : 21). The presence, however, of his mother, 
and his words to her, told alone in the John, and contra- 
dicted inferentially by the synoptics (Mat. 27: 55; Mark 
15 : 40 ; Luke 23 : 49), are not confirmed elsewhere. Neither 
is the piercing of his side by the soldier with a spear which 



264 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

the John alone tells, and so contradictory of the remark of 
the centurion and "those who were with him" (Mat. 27: 
54 ; also Mark 15 : 39; Luke 23 : 47). Neither is the cita- 
tion by Jesus from the Psalm (31:5), related in the Luke 
(23 : 46) only. The " My God, my God ", &c., quoted by 
Jesus from the Psalm (22 : i), and told by the Matthew and 
the Mark, is not elsewhere noticed. The '* Father, forgive 
them ", &c., told alone by the Luke, is not expected to be 
elsewhere found, for it is not even in some of the earliest 
codices from which we get that Gospel, and its absence from 
the Sinaitic and Vatican is fatal to its authenticity, and it is 
probably an interpolation borrowed from the words of 
Stephen in the later book of The Acts (7 : 60). The con- 
fession or conversion of the centurion, his " Surely this was 
the Son of God " ("righteous man", the Luke has it), com- 
mon to the synoptics, but not in the John, though the dis- 
ciple John was standing by, would have been powerful ar- 
tillery for the evangelists had they known of it, but their 
silence implies they were ignorant of it. The epistles give 
us no account of the scenes at the death of Jesus ; not even 
do we hear from them of the two thieves (Jere. 48: 27) or 
the crown of thorns or the inscription on the cross. 

It is only in the Matthew (27 : 62-66 ; 28 : ii-i 5) that we 
have any mention of the sealing of the sepulchre and the 
setting of the watch. It was doubtless an early, but not an 
immediate, claim of his followers that Jesus had arisen 
bodily from the grave ; not immediate, else Stephen would 
have been less indignant, and in his speech would surely 
have triumphantly mentioned it. If the body had dis- 
appeared, the reply must have been that his disciples had 
stolen it ; hence the Matthew's sealing and guarding seems 
a rejoinder which betokens a local controversy about it, of 
which the other Gospels were ignorant. 

The re-appearances of Jesus are not mentioned in the 
Mark, for all scholars agree that that Gospel ends with 16: 
8 ; but the young man at the grave said he had risen and 



THE RESURRECTION AND ASCENSION. 265 

gone into Galilee, where they would see him ; and this refers 
to a remark of Jesus (Mat. 26 : 32 ; Mark 14 : 28), where 
he said " After I am raised up, I will go before you into 
Galilee", which probably meant the " region " {Galil-ah) 
eastward of Ezekiel's (47 : 8) Paradise, whence the waters 
flow to Arabah or Erebus, and the Ge-Aulai (trans "re- 
deemed") of the Isaiah (62: 12); the Egyptian Aalu and 
Greek Elysium ; as this accords with his remark to the peni- 
tent thief (Luke 23 : 43). The Mark also says the " three 
women " saw a young man in the tomb ; and the Matthew 
converts him into a radiant angel, who also spoke to the 
" two women ", and also that they met Jesus there, contrary 
to what the young man and the angel had said. The Luke 
has a bevy of Galilean women at the sepulchre, who see two 
radiant men, just as Sha-Aul saw two "men" {Enosk-im) 
by Kabur-eth Rachel (i Sam. 10: 2). The John, however, 
gives the more cherubim-like idea of the two angels, and 
Magdalen saw them, though possibly she saw Peter and 
John while they were in the tomb ; but she also met and 
talked with Jesus, who, like the two cherubs, was not seen 
by Peter and John, nor by Luke's Peter. The Matthew 
supplies us with only one appearance of Jesus, and that was 
in a mountain of Galilee, as if in harmony with the Gali- 
lah concept ; and so the John leaves him at the Sea of Galilee. 
But the John and Luke and The Acts locate appearances of 
him in Jerusalem besides those at the sepulchre, though if 
the John originally ended, as some have insisted, with its 
2oth chapter, that authority would be excluded. Paul, pur- 
suing his theory of a bodily resurrection, cites more appear- 
ances than any other writer ; but he surely did not have this 
knowledge at the time he was persecuting Jesus. And 
among these Paul says (i Cor. 15: 12) Jesus appeared to 
" the twelve ", thus showing his ignorance of the story of 
Is-Kariot, which is nowhere alluded to by him ; a story told 
in some detail in all the Gospels, yet one which the silence 
of the epistolary writers suggests to be an allegory elab- 



266 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

orated from the Zechariah (ii : 12-14), where la-Kereth 
(trans, "priced ") accounts for one part of his name, while 
the name Judas perhaps personifies the Jews (The Acts 7 : 
52) as treasurer of the divine word and treacherous to the 
divine messenger; for Paul's statement that Jesus was "be- 
trayed" (i Cor. 11: 23), considering this remark of his 
about the "twelve", must be taken in the same sense as 
Stephen's (The Acts 7: 52), and applied to the Jewish 
authorities. 

The Ascension is not mentioned in the Gospels. The 
close of the Mark (16: 9-20) is known to be spurious. 
The "was carried up into Heaven" of the Luke (24: 51) 
is to be rejected because not in the oldest (the Sinaitic) 
Codex. The whole direct and admitted authority for the 
Ascension is therefore limited to three verses of The Acts 
(i: 9-11); a book which many argue was written in the 
earl}^ part of the second century ; but even in that book the 
speeches of Peter and Stephen and Paul fail to allude to 
the astonishing event. The several notices of Jesus as 
sitting at the right hand of God, have no necessary connec- 
tion with a bodily ascension. Indeed, the Hebrews, one of 
the very latest books, declares that Jesus "through his 
blood, entered in, once for all, into the holy place " (9: 12, 
24). The Ascension, an event more wondrous than the 
Resurrection, is not relied on or mentioned by the episto- 
lary writers; and even so late a writer as the pious interpo- 
lator of Josephus ( Antiq. 18 : 3).. after the days of Origen, 
A. D. 185-254, fails to record this remarkable breach of 
physical law as among the merits of Jesus ; while in the 
book of Origen against Celsus the zealous father seems not 
to have known of the Ascension. Certainly no averment 
in support of the divinity of Jesus could have been more 
effective in the evangelization of mankind, and the silence 
of Paul as to it, while engaged in his extensive mission, is 
certain evidence that it was not among the earlier beliefs. 
In truth, when we find the Matthew (28: 17), the Mark 



THE RESURRECTION AND ASCENSION. 267 

(16: 7), and the John (21: i) all leave Jesus in Galilee, 
while the last authentic words of the Luke on the subject 
are " he was parted from them", it might seem as if all the 
gospel writers preferred to have it believed Jesus was alive 
in Galilee (Galah means "Captivity" or ''Exile") and 
liable to return at any time to set up his authority or to 
"avenge" (^Goel, or as Goel-El) his wrong (Mat. 10: 23): 
though the John treats Jesus as a phantom, which enters 
closed-doors (20: 19, 26) and was not to be touched (: 17). 
It is not, therefore, to be expected that the gospels would re- 
cord the Ascension of Jesus, bodily or otherwise. The sole 
direct authority for the Ascension is thus found to be The 
Acts. This latter is believed by many to have been written 
after the publication of Josephus's Antiquities, A. D. 93, so 
close is the correspondence with it, and others place the 
date of The Acts as late as A. D. 120 or 130. The support 
we see for its late date is the fact that the Jews were so 
scattered and well established (The Acts 9 : 2; 11: 19; 13; 
5, 14-15; 14: i; 17: I, io» 16; 18: 4, 19), since these 
synagogues show strong colonies, and this could hardly be 
true till some time after the downfall of Jerusalem in A. D. 
70. That Jerusalem is so often alluded to in The Acts, 
and no mention made of its terrible fate, seems to show that 
the book antedates that event ; a point which is difficult to 
surmount; but if it was written, as is urged, at Rome, as 
much as half a century after the fall of the town, and by 
other than a Jew, postulates supported by the familiarity of 
the author with Italy and adjacent parts, the omission of all 
reference to the destruction of the town might be accounted 
for. Then the assertion that Paul taught for two years " in 
the school of Tyrannus " (The Acts 19 : lo-ii) at Ephesus 
would seem a controversial boast which would fetch the 
date of the book down, for it is probable that Tyanaeus is 
the right name here, since in the latter years of the first 
century the famous Apollonius Tyanaeus, whose thauma- 
turgy has been so otten compared with that told in the New 



268 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

Testament, was resident at Ephesus ; and in connection 
with this remark as to the mysterious Apollonius will be 
noticed the account of Apollos at Ephesus which immedi- 
ately precedes the teaching of Paul "in the school of 
Tyrannus " ( 1 8 : 24-28). Indeed it appears feasible to frame 
such an itinerary of Paul as is related in The Acts from his 
own epistles. Whatever the date of the book, however, 
and whoever the author, it is certain that it alone contains 
any authentic averment of the wondrous event of the bodily 
ascension of Jesus ; a statement not necessary to sustain the 
Psalm (16: 10), where " thy cHasid " is " not to see Shech- 
ath ", for the Resurrection responds to that characteristic, 
but to rank Jesus with the Jewish Elijah and with the 
Greek Ganymede or 'cup-bearer" (^Ma-Shech-aK) or Me- 
Siach. 



CHAPTER XX. 

THE EARLIER CLAIMS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

THE conclusion to be deduced from these facts of omis- 
sion is of the most striking nature. It is not whether 
miracles were wrought by Jesus, or that in his behalf 
prodigies were exhibited. Still less is it the old question as 
to the possibility of the performance of miracles, or that of 
the authenticity of prodigies. The discussion of these 
problems has no place here, as it has been exhausted long 
ago. But the question is, conceding every word and every 
detail of these wondrous incidents to be true, and the truer 
the more imperative the question, how could they wholly 
escape the knowledge or utterly fail to command the con- 
sideration of contemporary writers and speakers who were 
eagerly engaged in the propagation of a theology which at 
this day and for many centuries past has rested its claims 
to divine origin and supremacy on these very incidents ? 
Nay, more ; writers and speakers who, as the intimate asso- 
ciates of and believers in Jesus, and even his brothers, were 
witnesses of and actors in this superhuman drama, and who 
substitute their own homilies or relate their own visions in 
place of confirming the events and iterating the sayings of 
Almighty God during his visit to and presence in the 
world. It must seem that it is to these, to Peter and John, 
James and Jude, Thomas and James bar-Zebedee, that we 
should look for the history of their Master or brother, 
though the two former were " unlearned and ignorant 
men " ; and yet it is only the gospel narrative of John which 

anyone has accredited to one of these, and no scholar would 

(269) 



270 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE, 

admit that this metaphysical and ingenious production, so 
variant from the synoptic gospels, was written by a Galilean 
or Jew, or by an unlearned and ignorant man. No one, 
indeed, in the three first gospels, claims their authorship, 
and the Matthew and Mark and Luke, to whom they are 
arbitrarily assigned, were not, except Matthew, among the 
intimates or followers of Jesus during his lifetime ; and thus 
the surprise is the greater that those who actually knew of 
these remarkable occurrences should be wholly dumb as to 
them, and leave them to be told by those who could only 
have learned most of them by hearsay, while these intimate 
associates should write of doctrinal and pastoral themes. 
The fact is almost as strange as that, despite "the signs 
and wonders" wrought by and for Jesus, including the 
numerous cures he wrought, he was unanimously con- 
demned by the populace and authorities who knew of these 
to the most shameful death. 

It must be, in explanation of this, that the basic idea of 
the earliest Christians, at least down to the time of the de- 
struction of Jerusalem, A. D. 70, was not so much the per- 
sonality of Jesus as preparation for "the Kingdom of 
Heaven ", which was shortly to be established by his second 
coming. In the i Corinthians, doubtless the oldest of the 
New Testament canon, Paul speaks freely of this expected 
event, and as if it were at hand (i : 7-8 ; 4: 5 ; 7: 29-31 ; 10: 
II ; 11: 26). The very resurrection of Jesus was the as- 
surance of this expectation, for unless he had risen unto life 
again he could have no second coming, there would be no 
" Kingdom of Heaven ", no bodily resurrection of others, 
and " then is our preaching vain, your faith also vain " (i 
Cor. 15 : 12-24) ; that is to say that the whole Christian or 
Paulian faith of that early day was the old hope for " God 
as Ruler", or the " Kingdom of Heaven", broadened into a 
hope that this might extend to the Gentiles, and coupled 
with the averment that Jesus was to precede God as a pre- 
paratory messenger (vv. 23-26). And the general idea 



THE EARLIER CLAIMS OF CHRISTIANITY. 27I 

was perhaps even more realistic than that manner of com- 
ing which Jesus so liked to describe from the Daniel (7 : 13- 
14), where this coming would be in the clouds of Heaven, 
and as Chibar Aenosh or " glorious man " * who was to 
come Kerob or " at hand ", and have dominion. This was 
the creed, the faith, the bond of organization ; and the course 
to pursue was to lead a brotherly and blameless life so as 
to be in unison with the happy change. Paul seems to 
have known nought of wonders at the birth and death of 
Jesus, or of the prodigies done for him, or of the Ascension, 
save the particular fact of the bodily rising, which made 
Jesus the first who had triumphed over the Kabor or grave; 
and held that he would soon come back to reign ; his suf- 
fering having atoned for the general Earth-curse ; where- 
fore he was the promised Me-Siach and Son of God. Upon 
these dogmas Paul built the primitive Church. 

This Messianic hope, however, must have rapidly abated 
among the Galileans of Palestine when the Romans subju- 
gated the country and destroyed their holy city. It was 
then that these believers must have turned more eagerly to 
the personality of Jesus. It was then that they must have 
insisted that their calamities and those of the Jews came 
upon them because the latter had rejected and crucified 
him ; in which case of such divine vengeance he must have 
been the Son or forerunner of God, and must have had 
manifestations of this, and done works consonant with such 
a nature. Friction with those who denied this and these 
only developed more rapidly the number and superhuman 
character of the claims as to him, till at last the two prelim- 
inary chapters of the Matthew and the Luke took shape, 
and were prefixed. That there were extant previously 
.some accounts of Jesus, and sayings of his, may well be 
supposed, since his sect was firmly established from the 

* Perhaps Kabor or " sepulcre " man, but not Chi Bar, "like a 
son",thoughtheplayon words is there ; and soGibboror "mighty", 
and hence Gabri-El ; the classic Mul-Ciber, &c. 



272 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

Jordan to the Tiber, and already had the Pauline epistles 
and perhaps other literature ; nay, had even been persecuted 
at Rome, though it is more likely that it was the Pales- 
tinians generally of whom Tacitus and Suetonius speak, 
that is, Jews and Christians. In any case, our point is 
that the personality of Jesus developed towards the end of 
the century, and early in the next, at which latter time our 
gospels probably took their present general form ; and this 
statement derives strong support, not only from the fact 
that late canonic epistles, such as the Hebrews, fail to specify 
his miraculous origin and works and death, but the apostol- 
ic fathers nowhere specify them ; Clemens Romanus men- 
tioning two miracles of the Old Testament, but, apart from 
the resurrection, not intimating such a power in Jesus ; the 
Barnabas (4: 11) saying Jesus did "many wonders and 
signs ", and that he " arose from the dead, manifested him- 
self to his disciples, and ascended into heaven ", but speci- 
fying nothing save this latter ; the Polycarp saying nought 
of Jesus's manifestations ; the Hermas saying nought ; and 
it is only when we reach the questionable letters of Ignatius 
that we hear of the "incarnation ", " birth", and thrice of 
Virgin Mary, all without particulars, and then of a great 
star whereby Jesus was " manifested." These books are as- 
cribed to the period between A. D. 100 and 150; Clemens's 
writing being claimed as extant a year or two earlier, and 
Ignatius a few years after Clemens ; but the particular fea- 
ture they present is that, except Ignatius, whose epistles are 
in sore controversy, their authors are as free from details of 
Jesus's signs and wonders as is Paul. They tell, scantily, 
some of the logia of Jesus, but our inference is that they 
were fairly ignorant of what he did and what was done for 
him because these had not been incorporated into any gos- 
pel as we now have it till perhaps after the dawn of the 
second century. Nor was there any great need for this, 
since the belief in his second coming was yet implicit out- 
side Palestine, and all the above except Hermas so declare, 



THE EARLIER CLAIMS OF CHRISTIANITY. 273 

and all these writers dwelt outside Palestine where the de- 
struction of Jerusalem was causing the hope to fade, and 
the increasing personalit)^ of Jesus was taking its place. 

The Gentiles, taught by Paul the strange doctrine of the 
Atonement, which we notice fully in this book, were there- 
fore the last who held on to the Messianic hope, for Paul 
had changed the Saviour of the Jews into the Saviour of the 
world (Rom. 5: 6-21 ; i Cor. 15: 3, 21-22). And the fact of 
the resurrection was all that was really urged to attest the 
Christhood of Jesus ; it is this that stands out in the writ- 
ings ascribed to the apostolic fathers as bald and almost as 
isolated as it does in those of Paul. This was the Christian 
faith of the first century, since it was strictly coupled with 
the second coming or " Kingdom of Heaven." Hence it is 
that Paul is to Christianity what Ezra is to Judaism. Hence 
it is, also, that the empty grave of Jesus is the cradle of 
Christianity. Christianity was born, not in a manger, but 
in a sepulchre. From that sepulchre have radiated the Star 
of Beth-Lechem as well as the Cross of Constantine ; while 
it has also yielded to us the most unscientific dogma of any 
great religion, namely, that the physical part of man does 
not perish at death, but revives to everlasting bliss or ever- 
lasting woe, as in case of recreant Jews in the time when 
Maccabeus stood up (Dan. 12: 1-2.) 



CHAPTER XXI. 

HISTORIC ENVIRONMENT OF JESUS. 

BEHIND the canonical accounts of Jesus lies a lurid 
background of history which such accounts but 
feebly disclose. Those who confine their research to the 
New Testament cannot be expected to understand the 
peculiar conditions and antecedents which gave Jesus and 
Christianity to the world. Fortunately the next generation 
after him supplied a secular historian, Josephus, who, 
though credulous and extravagant beyond measure, has 
thrown great light on the social or political status of Pales- 
tine in the first century. Most history is perverted or dis- 
torted by the bias or the purpose of the historian ; either 
that of maintaining or assailing some cause or some pre- 
tension; or it is inaccurate from ignorance, or from the 
sheer impossibility that any fact can be stated with precis- 
ion even by those who witness it. Josephus is heir to all 
these frailties. A writer who states that 115,880 dead Jews 
were carried out of one gate of Jerusalem, within seventy- 
five days, during its siege by Titus (Wars 5: 13), cannot 
be relied on as accurate, though he be present when events 
occur, as Josephus was in that instance. Whatever dis- 
credit may attach to his narrative, however, we may accept 
it as approximation to the facts, since he was largely con- 
temporary with and an actor in many of the occurrences he 
records as taking place during the first century. He was 
born at Jerusalem, A. D. 37, soon after the death there of 
Jesus, wrote the " Wars" about A. D. 75, the " Antiquities" 
about A. D. 93, and " Against Apion" about A. D. 100. 

(274; 



HISTORIC ENVIRONMENT OF JESUS. 275 

He says, speaking of the times of Archelaus, B. C. 4 to 
A. D. 6, which period is believed to cover the birth year of 
Jesus, that "a great many set up for kings" (Wars 2:4); 
and he repeats this as to the same period in his An- 
tiquities (19: 10) by saying that when "the several com- 
panies of the seditious lighted on anyone to lead them they 
immediately made him a king." He also states of the time 
in which Felix was governor, about A. D. 60, "the countrj' 
was filled with impostors and robbers"; that "impostors 
and deceivers persuaded the people to follow them into the 
wilderness, and pretended they would exhibit manifest 
wonders and signs" (Antiq. 20: 8), and that "there were 
such men as deceived and deluded the people under pre- 
tense of divine inspiration ", " who prevailed with the mul- 
titude to act like madmen, and went before them into the 
wilderness as pretending that God would show them the 
signals of liberty" (Wars 2: 13). He names several who 
led these movements, such as Judas of Gamala or Galilee ; 
also another Judas who raised rebellion in Galilee; also 
one Anthrogos, a peasant; then Simon a servant of the 
great Herod; also "an Egyptian"; and Theudas, and nota- 
bly Menahem. Three of these appear in the New Testa- 
ment, namely, Theudas and Judas of Galilee (The Acts 5: 
36-37), and the Egyptian (21 : 38). Some of these, Josephus 
says, assumed or aspired to the royal dignity. Most of 
them were attacked and ^ut down by the Roman army of 
occupation, and not by the native authorities. 

The immediate cause of these outbreaks was the servility 
in which the Galileans, rather than the Judeans, felt them- 
selves upon the reduction of Palestine to a province of the 
empire. This occurred after the death of the first Herod, 
and during the short reign of Archelaus. The populace 
were then enrolled for taxation, not as before to and for 
their hierarchy of the Temple, but for the Romans. The 
rule of Herod, a foreigner, and close ally of the Romans, 
had been obnoxious to the Galileans ; but Herod built the 



276 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

temple, tolerated their peculiarities, and under him the 
country was prosperous. 

Galilee, the district most turbulent, upon the imposition 
of Roman rule at once produced a leader in the person of 
Judas. He is severally called "the Gaulonite", "of 
Galilee", and "of Gamala", by Josephus; Gaulonitis being 
the district just north and east of Lake Galilee, and Gamala 
a town shortly to the east of that water. Josephus con- 
siders that Judas founded a fourth philosophic sect (Antiq. 
18 : i), as distinguished from the Pharisees, Sadducees, and 
Essenes. It seems, however, from his three or four notices 
of Judas, that it was not so much a philosophic sect as it 
was a political and religious sentiment. "These men", he 
says, " ag^ee in all other things with the Pharisee notions ; 
but they have an inviolable attachment to liberty, and say 
that God is to be their only Ruler and Lord." He then 
tells that with intense fortitude they braved or received 
danger, pain, death; thus showing that they must have 
come in conflict with the authorities. In another part of 
the same chapter he states that this Judas and one Sadduc 
"both said that this taxation" [by the Romans] "was no 
better than an introduction to slavery, and exhorted the 
nation to assert their liberty " (Antiq. 18 : i). In his other 
history (Wars 2: 8) Josephus says "Judas prevailed on his 
countrymen to revolt, and said they were cowards if they 
would endure to pay a tax to the Romans ; and would, after 
God, submit to moftal men as their Lord"; that is, after 
being subject so long to God thej^ were cowards if they 
submitted to the Romans. Josephus says the Jewish 
" nation was infected with this doctrine to an incredible 
degree" (Antiq. 18: i). And this sect or party continued 
to exist, and waxed bolder and stronger till he says " it 
was in Gessius Florus's time" [about A. D. 65] "that the 
nation began to grow mad with this distemper" (Antiq. 
18: i). 

It was then that Menachem (that is, "the Comforter") 



HISTORIC ENVIRONMENT OF JESUS. 277 

the son of Judas of Galilee, began the war which five years 
later ended in the destruction of Jerusalem (Wars 2 : 17). 
Two other sons of Judas, James and Simon, had been cruci- 
fied bj' order of the procurator Tiberius Alexander, about 
A. D. 50 (Antiq. 20: 5), but for what offense we are not 
told. Menachem broke up the public armory at Messada, 
and came back into Jerusalem in royal pomp; became 
leader of the seditionary forces w^hich were assailing the 
Roman garrison of that town ; put on kingly robes, and 
went into the temple to worship ; whereupon envy raised up 
Lazarus and others there ; Menachem fled to the suburb 
called Ophla, was there skulking when caught ; was brought 
back, tortured, put to death; together with some of his 
prominent followers. 

The influence of this Judas of Galilee must have been 
very considerable in his day when we observe that his 
teaching led to the bloody and terrible revolt sixty years 
later. But, while Josephus charges that Judas exhorted 
the Jews to revolt, that his teaching caused them to revolt, 
nov*'here is it said that he himself did any act of violence. 
In one place he is called a *' sophist ", in another place 
"a very cunning sophist", by the historian; by which 
terms we are doubtless to understand that Judas was 
a plausible reasoner. In one place we are told that it 
was "a system of philosophy", and twice that it was "a 
"philosophic sect", that Judas founded. The fact that 
Josephus opposed the revolt of his countrymen, that he 
deserted their cause when its excesses were too intolerable 
and atrocious, and joined their enemies, and that his books 
were written after the triumph of the latter, when he was a 
pensioner on Roman bounty, and anxious to ingratiate 
himself with them, tends to show that he has not done full 
justice to or stated the better side of the doctrines of the 
Galilean. A righteous resentment against one who was the 
teacher of doctrines which had resulted in the overthrow of 
his people and their unparalleled miseries, might well ex- 



278 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

cuse the silence or the injustice with which Josephus treats 
this man and his sect. In the narrative he gives of his own 
life, Josephus says he himself had in turn been a Pharisee, 
Sadducee, an Essene, and that he also dwelt from the time 
he was sixteen till he was nineteen years of age in " the 
desert " with one Banus, a dervish or monk, who baptised 
with water, and who was perhaps a follower of John the 
Baptist. The sect of Pharisees, however, was the one to 
which Josephus at last attached hirnself. It may be that 
Banus in some sort represented the sect of Judas of Galilee. 

It can hardly be doubted, indeed, that the Jews of the 
first century were divided into political factions, the extremes 
of which were the Pharisees and the Galileans ; the former 
clinging to the pentateuchal writings, the latter to the 
prophetic or apocalyptic books; the former people being the 
wealthier, more contented, more intelligent, and stoical ; 
the latter the poorer, more restless, more rustic, more 
emotionable. The law on the one hand, upheld in Jerusa- 
lem and perhaps all Judea ; the prophets on the other hand, 
revered in Galilee and the trans- Jordan, were the salient 
points of division. The Isaiah, the Ezekiel, the Zechariah, 
the Malachi, the Daniel, were feeding and inflaming the 
hopes of the lowly ; while the ceremonial law and its ritual 
continued to satisfy the governing class. It has been 
shown in this volume, that this division had existed for cen- 
turies (Jere. 7: 22; 23: 31; Ezek. 22: 28; 23: 7-8; Dan. 12: 
1-3). Only a stimulant was needed to develop and extend 
this sharp division : just as the folly of the two first Stuarts 
developed a like outbreak in Britain. This former came, 
about the year A. D. 6, when Archelaus, son of the first 
Herod, was removed from the petty throne of Judea, the 
autonomy of the nation was swept away, and that country 
and people became a province of Rome, subject to direct 
taxation in place of tribute, and under the supervision of 
military governors. 

It was then that Judas and his sect or party arose ; not 



HISTORIC ENVIRONMENT OF JESUS. 279 

in the streets of Jerusalem, but among the hills of Galilee. 
And it is curious to note that, of the three sons of Judas 
whose names have come down to us, James and Simon bore 
the same names as those of two of the brothers of Jesus, 
while the name of the other, Menachem, is said to mean 
"The Comforter" {Na-cHem, Isaiah 40: i; 61: 2; comp. 
John 14: — 16:). Though Judas founded a sect or party 
which existed at least up to the time Josephus wrote the 
Antiquities, about A. D. 93, it nowhere appears that Judas 
himself did any miracles or that any prodigies attended his 
birth, death or career. Indeed, Josephus does not tell what 
fate befel Judas, but we learn from The Acts (5 : 37) that 
he was slain. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

ANTECEDENTS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

GOD is to be Ruler " are words which, in the mouth of 
" a very cunning sophister ", among a people ignorant 
of the power and resources of Rome, and who saw in the 
insignia of her authority " the abomination that maketh 
desolate" (Daniel 12 : 11), was a phrase dangerous to the 
public tranquillity. It was one easily demonstrated out of 
books held by Galileans to be ancient and sacred. The 
Daniel, a book written during or soon after the deadly 
struggle of the rebel people against Antiochus Epiphanes, 
about B. C. 165 ; a king who had decreed the abolition of 
the Jewish religion, and set up statues of his own Hellenic 
gods in the temple at Jerusalem ; this book, we say, was 
among these inspired writings, and believed to be centuries 
older and mj^steriously prophetic. The Jews had been 
tributaries of the Macedonian powers around them since the 
days of Alexander, B. C. 330, and their religion had been 
tolerated by his successors till this Antiochus, supporting a 
Hellenizing faction (Dan. 11 : 30, 32), offended sentiments 
of piety or patriotism ; piety and patriotism being to the 
Jews much the same thing. Their fierce and sanguinary 
resistance to Antiochus (Dan. 12: 1-3), crowned by vic- 
tory, had served to intensify the prejudice against images 
and other concrete symbols, which w^ere called *' abomina- 
tions" {Shik-Az or -Kiiz) to Jehoah and pollutions of his 
temple. The references in the Daniel to the conduct of 
Antiochus (9: 27 ; 11 : 31 ; 12 : 11) in setting up "abomina- 
tions " are coupled with hopeful intimations of the over- 
throw or end of these (12:), and to a blessed period that 

would follow (12: 12), which only "the wise" {Ma-Sach-Il- 

(280) 



ANTECEDENTS OF CHRISTIANITY. 28l 

im), Josephus's *' cunning sophister ", would understand or 
could explain ; the closing verse ( 12 : 13), properly rendered, 
intimates that this " ju gment-god " {Dani-El) will '* rest " 
{Ta-Niuch) till that " end " (^Kez ; also " awakening ", 12 : 
2) shall come ; and, as the masses of the Galileans of the 
times of Judas {Jada, " wise") had fallen into the opinion 
that this book was written by one of their '* prophets " three 
or four centuries before the events and visions it records, 
its obscurities of language when the events themselves had 
become obscure were readily made applicable, by a wise or 
cunning man, to the humiliations the Roman symbols sub- 
jected them to. The Ma-Sach-Il-im here mentioned were 
perhaps those who believed in the " hidden " {Me-Sheck) 
god, who would come, and the Galileans of the first century 
were " bereaved " {Sech-ol) till that time would be (Luke 2 : 
25; John 4 : 25) ; and so Jesus alludes to Noach (Mat. 24 : 
37-38) as his understanding of Niuch (trans, "rest", Dan. 
12: 13), or Isaiah's (40: i) iV^r^-«w (trans. " comfort " ; 
Latin Nox), and elsewhere (John 14: 16, &c.) Jesus speaks 
of this as the "Comforter", which the Hebrew word Me- 
Ndch-em represents, though Mine-cHem would better serve 
as the spirit of "truth" (Heb. A-Men) which he further 
calls it (14: 17 ; 16: 13). 

It was also easy to show that the Maccabean or Has- 
Amon-ian triumph set forth by the Daniel was in touch 
with similar expressions and expectancies trilled in other 
of their fervid lyrical literature ; told more figuratively and 
less accurately in the vein of rhapsody. In the Isaiah, 
some parts of which are as late as the going of Onias into 
Egypt, B. C. 175 (19: 18-21), there is an apparent declara- 
tion of the coming reign of Jehoah (66: 15-24) which was 
to be attended by great violence and destructive incidents 
because of the Shik-Kuz.* The Joel is almost wholly given 

'■•'Ba-Aal Piphioth (Isaiah 41 : 15) is rendered " teeth ", but we can- 
not pass it over without a suspicion that it is a reference to Antiochus 
Epiphanes ; and the more because he laid special claims to divine 
honors, and hence was a Ba-Aal or false ^od. 



282 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

to this concept, and the day of Jehoah is not only made 
awful (2 : 30, 31) but "near" {Kerob, i : 15; 2:1; 4: 14) 
in the valley of '' the cl/er-uz" (trans. ** discretion" ; per- 
haps "herald"). The Zephaniah (i : 7, 14) is of like 
purport. The Zechariah (9: 3-5), written perhaps after 
Alexander destroyed Tyre and Azza, or even after the 
Maccabean war (9: 13-16), says destructive warfare was to 
precede this advent (14:), and Jehoah when successful was 
to reign over all Earth (14: 9). In the Malachi the divine 
appearance was to be attended by wars and vengeance, 
and Jehoah was to come suddenly into his temple ; but 
some later hand perhaps added the last several verses 
which say that his Malach who was to precede him 
was Elijah the Gab-ia, not JVedm (trans, "prophet"), but 
in the sense of devourer, such as a " locust" (Gad), as John 
Baptist understood by his diet ; though the Isaiah (45 : 1-2) 
has it that Jehoah is to precede his Me-Siach Cor-Esh, 
which latter seems probably the "worker" or " plow-man " 
{cHer-asK), as cHuram or El-Ishea (i K. 7: 14; 19: 19), 
perhaps cHer-oze (trans, "herald"). Indeed, all the rhap- 
sodic or " prophetic " books came to be valuable and got 
into the canon for that they asserted or referred to this 
manifestation of Jehoah, or his herald or messenger, and 
the sequent day of their rule or kingdom or personal ad- 
ministration ; so that Cherash or Coresh became " Cheris-t ", 
though in Hebrew Cheras is rendered " throne " ; while 
Kerob (trans, "near" and "near-at-hand") was perhaps 
a form of the word Cherub, also explained herein, implying 
"drouth" and "sword." A gentle and beneficent view of 
this hope was also presented, in contrast to the one of ter- 
ror and vengeance; and we find in the Isaiah (61 : 1-2) that 
Me-Shach of Jehoah is to "proclaim to captives" (^Kere 
ShebU'im), as the Greek Chaire Demeter or " Hail, Demeter ! " 
at Eleu-Isis, and also " comfort" {Nach-em) the poor ; a task 
and an ofiice therefore (Luke 4 : 16-30) assigned to Jesus. 
It is curious that this famous chapter (61 :) of the Isaiah, 



ANTECEDENTS OF CHRISTIANITY. 283 

Opening with " Spirit of Adonai Jehoah is upon me Jaan 
Me-Shach Jehoah", may have suggested the name ** Johan" 
or "John", though Jaan is rendered "because." There 
was also (Dan. 7 : 9, &c.) the majestic figure of the Athik 
of Days, sitting when Cheras-Avan Rem-i* which cannot 
be the plural "thrones" (^Cheras-in) , nor "were placed", 
but perhaps /-^z/<3f72 ("Greece") and A-Ram ("Syria"), as 
some reference to Antiochus Epiphanes, the beast burned 
there with fire; and thereupon came Chebar Enosh, not 
"like-unto the Son of Man", but "glory man" (comp. 
Chebor Jehoah, Ex. 24: 16, 17), who seems to be Macca- 
baios (Ma-Chebor?), for Michael (Dan. 12: i) certainly is, 
yet Mygale is Greek for "shrew-mouse", sacred to Horus 
or cHor-us, and "mouse" is Hebrew A-Chabor, symbolized 
at Jerusalem (Isaiah 66: 17) perhaps for Horus. 

These hopes might well be indulged, moulded into 
shape, and nursed into flame by a simple people rendered 
wretched by their calamities, and embittered by the arro- 
gance of the ruling and wealthy class in the stronghold 
and capital Jerusalem ; a class which were content to 
temporize with a conqueror their intelligence taught them 
they could not overthrow, and who relied on and pointed 
to pentateuchal law for national as well as individual sal- 
vation. It was these who had allowed Pompey to go into 
the arcanum of the temple (B. C. 63), who had not resisted 
the Parthians when they occupied Jerusalem (B. C. 40), 
who had submitted to Herod the Idumean, and who were 
now accepting the sway of the Romans. It was mainly if 
not wholly the rustics of Galilee to whom the words of 
Judas, that "God is to be Ruler" when "the abomination 
that maketh desolate is set up", had a profound signifi- 
cance. 

Even at Jerusalem, in the last days of Herod I, and not 

long before Judas of Galilee arose, there had been an out- 

*" Thrones were placed " is not satisfactory to our translators, as 
their marginals show. Rem-i may be "Romans", as it was they 
who forced Epiphanes out of Egypt. 



284 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

break because Herod had put a gilt eagle on the great gate 
of the temple, which he had had re-built (Wars, i: 33; 
Antiq. 17: 6). Upon a rumor of the death of the aged 
monarch, some students were emboldened to cut down this 
symbol in open day. The "innocents", to the number of 
forty, were seized and put to death, together with their 
rabbins or teachers. The latter were Matthew of Megala 
and Judas of Sepphoris, or sons of Margalus and Sep- 
phoris as the translator of Josephus has it. They were 
famous interpreters of the law, it seems, and their school 
was numerously attended. They said the eagle was a 
desecration of the temple, and urged their pupils to pull it 
down ; saying also that, if these lost life for the deed, the 
soul was immortal, and they would be rewarded with hap- 
piness after death, as well as enjoy earthly fame. The 
two rabbins did not resist arrest, and we are twice told that 
Matthew was burnt alive; the only eclipse recorded by 
Josephus occurring of the moon the night of the day on 
which he suffered, which has been calculated as that of 13 
March, B. C. 4. It is inferable that Judas, who was de- 
livered to be burnt, likewise perished. The populace at 
Jerusalem consented to the death of these teachers and 
students. The prophets or "diviners", however, said 
Herod's lingering and painful death was a penalty inflicted 
on him for the execution of the two rabbins. At the en- 
suing Passover some of the country people stood in the 
temple bewailing these rabbins, insomuch that a sedition 
arose, repressed by the soldiers of Archelaus, and 3000 
(Wars 2: i) or 8000 (Antiq. 17: 9) of the people in and 
about the temple were killed. These incidents are told at 
some length by the careless historian. From the state- 
ments it must appear that this was a collision between 
Judeans and Galileans ; a view which draws support from 
the name Sepphoris (Saripheus in the Antiquities) con- 
nected with that of Judas ; Sepphoris being at the time a 
chief town of Galilee, about five miles from Nazareth. 



ANTECEDENTS OF CHRISTIANITY. 285 

A thought must come to the more deliberative, in connec- 
tion with this episode, which occurred about thirty-five 
years before the crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth. The two 
rabbins are not said to have done any miracles, or had any 
prodigies performed in their behalf, except the eclipse and 
the disease and death of Herod, yet a bloody sedition of 
some magnitude followed fast on the event, and this in and 
about the temple during the ensuing Passover. Nor is the 
distinction between their teaching and the "God is to be 
Ruler " of Judas, or " the kingdom of Heaven is at hand " 
of John and Jesus, so very apparent, and yet there was the 
opposite of a sedition as to Jesus. 

The fond and enticing hope that at some future time 
" God is to be Ruler" ; that there is to be a better day, when 
Good shall prevail over Evil; is not only at the root of all 
religions, but is the basis of human activity in every de- 
partment. This expectancy is vivid and intense in men's 
minds, so far as religious concepts are concerned, in the 
degree that men are wretched, and realistic in proportion 
to their ignorance. To the Galileans their sacred books 
had promised or seemed to promise a distinctive relief, in 
the form of an actual sovereignty of Jehoah, and the over- 
throw of heathen power ; and it only remained for Elijah 
or other divine herald to come and announce the arrival of 
the predicted period when this should take place. It was 
now apparent, from the dominance of Rome, that this 
period could not long be deferred, and in order to hasten it 
a preparatory stage or system of conduct was essential. 
"Repent ye", cried John and Jesus; disengage yourselves 
from practical concerns in order that ye may be ready for 
the mighty change ; and we may likewise understand that 
the " system of philosophy ** ascribed to Judas of Galilee 
meant some social deportment of the same sort. The rite 
of baptism instituted by John and followed by Jesus sig- 
nified to the outer world an .acceptance of this expectancy, 
and a purpose to conform to it by a new course of conduct. 



286 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

But the development of this ideal, this hope, thus pre- 
cipitated by the political and social conditions which had 
come upon the nation, was necessarily reprobated by those 
who were too intelligent to mistake the sacred authors, or 
who interpreted them in a less fervid sense ; or by those 
who knew the strength of the Roman arms, or by those 
who relied on the ceremonial law and ancient faith for 
national redemption. To any and all of these, and es- 
pecially to such as were in any way connected with civic 
and religious functions, the doctrines of Judas and his suc- 
cessors must have appeared seditious and dangerous, as 
threatening the national stability ; or, as Josephus said of 
them after the event, they *'laid the foundation of our 
future miseries" (Antiq. i8: i). 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

THE CLAIMS JESUS MADE FOR HIMSELF. 

GOD could, of course, only be considered as Ruler when 
active in the exercise of the power to protect, to re- 
ward, to punish. The " Kingdom of Heaven ", when trans- 
ferred to Earth, was to be necessarily a political as well as 
religpious government. The famous prayer taught by Jesus 
not only invokes the coming of this kingdom, but that 
God's will be done, "as in Heaven, so on Earth." John 
and Jesus both seem to have earnestly believed, at least at 
one time, that this remarkable event would happen, and 
was even "at-hand" {Kerob). Jesus declared there were 
those who heard him who would not taste death till the)*^ 
saw this kingdom come (Mat. i6: 28; Mark 9: i; Luke 
9: 27; comp. I Cor. 11-26). And when God came, Jesus 
said, everyone would be rewarded according to his works 
(Mat. 16: 27). The change desired was therefore a polit- 
ical one, as politics are the methods by which a people are 
governed or ruled. 

Indeed, the peculiarity of Hebrew history and religion, 
and that which lends to these some of their deep interest to 
those of serious mind, is the fact that their politics and 
religion were much the same thing ; for Deity was alleged 
to be constantly controlling or directing their public affairs. 
God in human government is a marvelous conception, at- 
tractive alike in the Iliad and the Isaiah. The intelligent 
and happier Greek had, however, referred such condition 
to by-gone ages ; the oppressed and meditative Jew believed 
that propitiation would at any hour renew a relation which 

(287) 



288 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

sin had merely suspended. And this sin which thus in- 
tercepted the divine relation was considered by the devout 
Jew or Galilean, and even by many religious people of our 
day, as that of others wholly, which must be removed by 
force or persuasion. Theocracy is really the dream of 
mankind ; but many Hebrews of the first century dreamed 
with open eyes. 

Howbeit, as God does not deign at all times personally 
to exercise sovereignty and supervision over political in- 
stitutions, there are never wanting those who offer them- 
selves to act in his stead or to speak in his name. Religious 
or theologic sects and seisms arise from the fact that the 
claimants of this prerogative are numerous, and several dif- 
ferent ones become acceptable to several separate portions 
of the masses. In a theocracy, such as that at Jerusalem, 
the number of claimants is more apt to be large, and they 
will conflict with one another in proportion as the temporal 
interests suffer depression. 

The difficulty encountered by the scientist or student of 
history is, not that he denies the existence of God, or even 
his general superintendence, but the scientist is unable to 
comprehend that any particular person can be selected, or 
which particular person, to communicate the pleasure and 
will of Deity. The broad difference in the faculties and 
endowments of men, in their conditions and opportunities, in 
their temperaments and desires, which must seem arbitrary 
and partial, and the effect of discrimination, would suggest 
that some one or more of them might possess a special 
heritage from a common Father ; but even these gifts or ad- 
vantages do not suffice in the opinion of some to indicate or 
imply a commission in divine or sacred things to the one so 
circumstanced. The masses of mankind, however, in every 
age, knowing little of natural phenomena, and seeing little 
of social mechanism, are more likely to observe the favorit- 
ism of both society and nature, and hence yield their suf- 
frages or faith the more readily to some one of the claim- 



THE CLAIMS JESUS MADE FOR HIMSELF. 289 

ants. Both classes are equally and alike sincere, as is each 
individual, in these opinions, howsoever they differ, since 
opinions, or ideals on which opinions are based, are as 
spontaneous as appetites, and are less orderly, less under 
our control. 

That Jesus asserted his own claim as representative of 
Jehoah or of God can hardly be questioned, though certain 
passages when compared leave the student in doubt as to 
his precise attitude on this important point. It must ever 
be borne in memory that he wrote nothing, and that the re- 
ports we have of his conversation and conduct were written 
many 3^ ears after his disappearance, probably by no one who 
personally heard or knew him, and that these reports as 
they come to us are frequently interpolated. All the logia 
and incidents and events recorded in the Gospels are most 
probably " hearsay ", and it is not certain that a line of 
them was written in Palestine ; and we have only our trans- 
lation of a Greek rendering of words of Jesus uttered in 
Hebrew or Aramaic, and translations are only approxima- 
tions. But from these it must appear that Jesus is repre- 
sented as expressing very different concepts of his own per- 
sonality ; so wide apart, indeed, that it seems the claim or 
conversation of different persons. Can it be that Jesus said 
at one time " I and my father are one ", and ** He that hath 
seen me hath seen the Father ", and " I came down from 
Heaven " (John 10: 30; 6 : 35 ; 14: 9), and that he also said 
he was only " sanctified and sent ", and that he was not to 
be called " good ", and that he also reproached God for for- 
saking him? (John 10: 36; Mark 10: 18; Luke 18: 19; 
Mat. 27 : 46). Even one subject to elation and dejection 
could scarcely express such variant ideas of himself. And 
yet we are told that it was only for his pretensions or claims 
that he was put to death, and that these were considered by 
his countrymen to be blasphemous ; and hence these claims 
must have been excessive to have aroused so much rancor 
in a land and among a people where figurative language 



290 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

was and is extreme, and where the term ** man of God " or 
"son of God" was not at all uncommon; John the Baptist 
himself having been *' sent from God " (John 1:6). And, if 
it was not for his claims that he suffered, it could hardlj' 
have been for the riot he caused in the temple as seeming 
to him still Jeremiah's (7: 11, 15) "den of robbers"; and, if 
we say it was for his denunciation of Scribes and Pharisees, 
we must yet account somehow for the wrath of more hum- 
ble people. And yet it is difficult to believe that he said 
" He that hath seen me has seen the Father." 

The title "Son of "Man" which he is said to have applied 
to himself (Mat. 26: 24, 64 ; Mark 14: 21 ; Luke 22: 69), 
and in the sense of Daniel's Chebar Enosh, is so contra- 
dictory of his modest claims that we suspect he meant the 
Ben Adam of the Ezekiel ; the second and third chapters of 
which book not only originate this singular phrase (really 
"Son of Earth"), but associate it closely with thsit Issea 
Rtcach (Ezek. 3: 12) or upraising spirit which developed 
into the third person of the Trinity ; this Je-cHezek-El who 
went to " them of the captivity " (3 : 15) and found them 
" impudent and cHesak-Leb" (2:4; though "stiff-hearted " 
may not be all that is meant). The whole mission of Jesus 
might have derived its inspiration from these two chapters. 
Howbeit, it seems doubtful that Jesus claimed to be a son 
of David, from whose lineage Me-Shiach was expected to 
come (John 7: 41-42), for he was a Galilean, which was a 
mixed race, and he made the "common people" glad by 
proving from Scripture that Me-Shiach was not to be a son 
of David (Mat. 22: 41-46; Mark 12: 35-37; Luke 20: 41-44). 

In the John Gospel (4: 26 ; 5 : 18 ; 9: 35, 37) we find that 
Jesus more than once claimed distinctly that he was " the 
son of God." On one occasion, however, when charged 
with this assertion, he explained it away by a citation which 
showed that he was not claiming more than was said of all 
Jews in their ancient writings (John 10: 33-36). In the 
Mark (3 : 11-12) he admits to the unclean spirits that he is 



THE CLAIMS JESUS MADE FOR HIMSELF. 291 

the Son of God, but asks them not to make the fact or the 
assertion known. At the trial, while the other two synoptics 
render his reply as to this evasive or equivocal (Mat. 26 : 
63-64 ; Luke 22 : 70), and the John confines the answer to 
the claim of the usual title of royalty, the Mark (14 : 61-62) 
gives the reply of Jesus that he was "the Christ " the son 
of " the Blessed " ; which, supposing he spoke in his native 
tongue, and used the usual words, would be Bar-ha-Baruch, 
though Aasherai (Ps. i : i) is a name Ehieh gives himself 
(Ex. 3 : 14). But, whatever the precise answer, the synoptics 
all agree that it was in the highest degree exasperating to 
his judges and "the multitude." This rather confirms the 
John (19: 7) which says Pilate was told that Jesus ** made 
himself the son of God." "Son of God" and "Man of 
God " are not uncommon phrases in Jewish literature, and 
applied to persons we are taught to consider as mortals 
(Hosea i : 10; i K. 17 : 24; Luke 3 : 38) ; and Jesus's own 
followers seem to have had such a name among them- 
selves at the first (John i : 12 ; Rom. 8: 14, 19; Phil. 2: 15; 
I John 3:1). It therefore seems strange that, even if Jesus 
answered more positively as to this title than appears, his 
offense should have been deemed so heinous. And, if we 
couple this with the fierce denunciation he uses against the 
ruling classes as set forth in 23d Matthew, we are still left 
to surmise as to why he had no friends to stand by him, 
and was subjected to such cruel insults from the populace; 
though this surmise finds a solution in the kno^vledge that 
these latter incidents are an adaptation of him by the Gos- 
pels to the older ideals and rhapsodies, as we have pointed 
out (comp. Isaiah 53:). 

When John Baptist sent to ask of Jesus " Are you he that 
should come ? " there would seem to be no occasion for him 
to remain silent ; and yet he does not then in so many words 
or in substance claim the Christhood, but merely refers to 
the cures performed by him (Mat. 1 1 : 2-5 ; Luke 7 : 18-23) \ 
not stating that he was the offspring of that Mary at whose 



292 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

presence John himself had leaped in his mother's womb 
(Luke 2 : 42-45) ; and not reminding John of that wondrous 
baptismal recognition recorded in all the gospels, and which 
John was familiar with (John i : 26-36; comp. 3 : 26-36) at 
the time, but had evidently forgotten or he would not have 
made his inquiry. Now it may well be doubted whether 
healing the blind and lame, or even reviving the dead, was 
satisfactory evidence or answer to the important question, 
since Peter and Paul, besides Elijah and Elisha, did these 
miracles, even that of raising the dead to life, and hence 
could have claimed the Christhood with equal assurance , 
as, indeed, all the disciples, including Judas Iscariot, were 
given by Jesus the power to do the like (Mat. 10 : 8 ; comp. 
Luke 10: 17), and were doubtless so engaged on every 
favorable occasion during the remainder of their lives, 
though for some purpose they overlooked Stephen and 
James when these saints were stoned, as Jesus himself seems 
to have neglected John Baptist, when that greatest born of 
women (Luke 7: 28) was decapitated. 

On the event of his public entry into Jerusalem, recorded 
in all the Gospels, the Luke (19 : 38) and the John (12 : 13) 
say Jesus was greeted as " king," either by the disciples 
(Luke) or by the people (John), while the Matthew (21: 
9, 15) says they called him "Son of David", and the Mark 
(11 : 9) merely says they cried, perhaps sang, the famous 
Hosannah (Ps. 118: 26, &c.), "Blessed" {Baruck) "he 
that cometh in the name of Jehoah ", &c. Jesus took no 
offense at the adulation and recognition on this occasion ; 
two of the Gospels (Mat. 21: 16; Luke 19: 39-40) saying 
he refused to reprove when asked to do so those who in- 
dulged in it, though at a former time the John (6: 15) 
declares he refused to be made a " king." In further com- 
plication of his claims and conduct, it appears from the 
Luke that in pursuance of this triumph, as if elated by it, 
Jesus at once went to the temple and ejected its habitants, 
though the Matthew and the Mark say this was done the 



THE CLAIMS JESUS MADE FOR HIMSELF. 293 

next day; and that he took possession of the building also 
appears (Mark ii: i6) ; whereas in the John (2: 15) we 
have it, in excess of the Jeremiah (7: 11-15), which the in- 
cident imitates, that Jesus drove out the people wuth a 
scourge composed of small cords ; which violence is in 
singular contrast with his gentler teachings, and with the 
saying that his own kingdom was not of this world (John 
18: 36); — the Crusades of the middle ages, which cost a 
million lives, having their inspiration in this conduct, 
founded on the text of the Jeremiah. This public entry 
was of course imitative of the Zechariah (9: 9), where the 
Malach (trans, "king") goes to Jerusalem riding on a 
Cham-or and on an Eair the son of Athon-oth, which is 
probably an allusion to the return of the high-priest Jehosh- 
ua from Babylon (comp. Zech. 3: i-io), for he came with 
Zerub-Babel (4: 6-10), though Maccabeus may be the per- 
son (9 : 13). Two circumstances of this event are notable; 
one is that ** all the city" of Jerusalem did not know who 
Jesus was till the "multitudes" who came with him told 
it (Mat. 21 : 9-11), and the other is that the civic authori- 
ties were highly incensed about it (Mark 11:8; Luke 19: 
47), as his arrest quicklj^ followed. 

Jesus perhaps over-estimated the plaudits he received. 
The effort of an unknown Galilean to personate the Zecha- 
riah text doubtless interested those who knew that text, 
and it may be that the Galileans as a partisan band dis- 
played a partisan zeal in his behalf which over-awed the 
simple spectators. Jesus certainly was serious; and, if the 
demonstration was the cause of his arrest and execution, 
this scene was the prelude to Christianity. Its tendency 
certainly was to instigate his violence in the temple, his 
seditious language of the 23d of the Matthew, and the asser- 
tion of his claims (Mat. 21 : 23-27; Luke 20: 2-8). Yet he 
did not subsequently under-rate his own peril, and was too 
Vv^ary to remain over-night in the town (Luke 22: 39; John 
18: 1-2); a fact which tends to show that, had he been 
captured during the day and in the town, there might have 



294 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

been those who would have resisted this, though the event 
proved otherwise as to such disposition on the part of any- 
one. It may have been his seeming timidity which caused 
Iscariot to betray and Peter to deny him, since their doubts 
must have then generated, if the silence of Paul and the 
other epistolary authors as to Iscariot can allow us to treat 
him as other than a personation of the usual attempt at 
fulfillment (Zech. ii : 11-14). Jesus seems to have had the 
usual characteristic of an enthusiast, that of revulsion to 
despondency : appearing quite unmanned if those who were 
asleep at the time that night in the garden have given a 
correct version of his soliloquy there. It seems, however, 
that he awoke these men in order that all should escape 
(Mat. 26: 46; Mark 14: 42), and was captured while so 
engaged. It must also seem that Jesus was surprised at 
his arrest, and at the number of the constabulary (Mat. 26: 
55; Mark 14: 48-49; Luke 22: 52-53), but restrained his 
friends present from resistance, though he apparently con- 
teriiplated resistance before he went there by asking as to 
swords (Luke 22: 36-38). To the constabulary he made 
no claim or pretension save that he had been teaching in 
the temple and they had come upon him as if he was a thief. 

When brought before Pilate and the high-priest we have 
noted the wide difference of the four gospels as to what 
Jesus answered as to his claims. In the Mark only did he 
avow that he was the Christ; an averment scarcely con- 
sistent with the evasiveness and muteness which the same 
book saj^s (15 : 2-5) he returned to Pilate, which may have 
been because neither understood the language of the other, 
unless his biographers have here practiced the adaptation 
evidence (Isaiah 53: 7). The two conversations with 
Pilate as told in the John are not found elsewhere, they 
eschew the adaptation theory, and are counter to the 
synoptics ; but their design seems to be that of showing 
that Pilate thoroughly interrogated Jesus and found him 
innocent. However this colloquy may have gotten abroad 
and become imbedded in the John some seventy or eighty 



THE CLAIMS JESUS MADE FOR HIMSELF. 295 

years later, there is a certain naturalness about it. If 
Pilate was a cultivated man it seems very natural that he 
should wish to know what Jesus meant by " the truth", a 
word which many people use without stopping to consider 
its purport ; but as Jesus was probably only able to use 
Aramaic, he must have said "ha- Amen"; that "every one 
who is of ha- Amen heareth" (comp. John 17 : 17) ; and if 
Pilate did not understand Aramaic he may have caught the 
word and supposed Jesus to profess faith in Jupiter-Am- 
mon, which was at the time the best known name of Deity 
around the Mediterranean, and known in Canaan at least 
since (i Sam. 2: 35) Shemu-El had been set up as an Amen 
(trans, "faithful") priest and an Amen (trans, "sure") 
house, who was to walk even before Me-Shiach; and in 
Proverbs (8: 30) Wisdom says he was "workman" (^Am- 
07i) of Jehoah ; and so Aimmanu-El was son of Aalom- 
ah (trans, "virgin") or the feminine " Eternal." The Luke 
(23 : 2, 5, 14) gives all the counts of the indictment, but in 
that book Jesus replied evasively or stood mute ; nor did 
he reply to the scoffs of those who while he was on the 
cross taunted him with his claim to divine filiation, told in 
all the Gospels, but one cannot say how far the adaptation 
process (Isaiah 22 : 8) affects that statement. In acknowl- 
edging himself Christ, son of the "Blessed" (Mark 14 : 61- 
62), which may have been Aasherai (Ps. i : i), we seem to 
have a reminder of the Egyptian custom, when after any 
good man died he became Osiri or an Osiri.* 

It thus seems that Jesus did not at all times make the 
same claims. That he was not condemned for " blasphemy " 
alone is clear, for the Romans would not have cared or 
understood his claim to Christhood as an offense; and we 
can not well admit that Jesus so poorly impressed Pilate 
that he gave him to be crucified on that charge alone, for 
even the subordinate chief-captain rescued Paul (The Acts 

♦The Hebrew word Aasher is rendered both "happy" and 
"which " or ** that." In the first of these meanings it appears to us 
as alluding to Osiri, from whom we perhaps get the word Isra-El. 



296 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

23 : 26-30) at Jerusalem under somewhat like charges ; and 
hence there cannot be a reasonable doubt that Pilate be- 
lieved Jesus to be seditious if we consider the pains taken 
by Lysias to protect Paul (The Acts 21 : 31-36) even before 
he had made it known that he was a Roman citizen ; and so 
Gallio (18: 12-16) did not even wait to hear Paul's defence, 
and even the town-clerk at Ephesus (19 : 37-41) quieted the 
mob under like circumstances. The inscription, "King of 
the Jews", said by the Matthew^ and the Mark to be the 
words of Jesus's accusation, and said in the John to have 
been written b}^ Pilate, might be argued either way, but 
seems to us to attest that by such claim, or some evidence 
of it, Jesus was executed as a political offender. The case 
of Mena-cHem or Me-Nachem, the " Comforter " (Josephus 
Wars, 2: 17), so like that of Jesus as to startle us, seems 
to have been settled by the Jews alone ; but, in view of the 
connection of Jesus with Egypt, it would be interesting to 
know more about "the Egyptian"* (The Acts 21 : 37-38), 
whom Paul was accused of being, whom he does not disavow, 
and who disappears in a mysterious manner (Josephus, An- 
tiq. 20: 8). It must be remembered that we have but one, 
and that the favorable, side of the case of Jesus, and even 
in that we have it that he denounced the Jewish authorities 
and was seditious in the temple, and for such conduct he 
would have been punished in any country at that time and 
even in our day. It ought to be possible, after these many 
centuries, to view a historic statement judicially. 

* *' Moreover, there came out of Egypt about this time to Jerusalem 
one that said he was a prophet, and advised the common people to 
go along with him to the Mount of Olives. * * * He said further 
that he would show them from thence how at his command the walls 
of Jerusalem would fall down ; and he promised them that he would 
procure them an entrance into the city through those walls when 
they had fallen down. Now, when Felix was informed of these 
things, he * * ^ came against them with a great many horsemen 
and footmen from Jerusalem, and attacked the Egyptian and the 
people that were with him. He slew four hundred of them, and took 
two hundred alive. But the Egyptian himself escaped out of the 
fight, but did not appear any vaorQ.''— Josephus, Antiq. 20: 8. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

TRAITS AND OPINIONS OF JESUS. 

THE personal views and traits of character of Jesus, as 
presented in the Gospels, may be considered in con- 
nection with what has been said. That he has been as- 
similated to the ancient concept of all the Levantine people 
of a divine worker, who appears among men as a toiler and 
sufferer for their betterment, and goes away baffled, only 
to return again for a future triumph, must not cause one to 
overlook the statements made respecting him as a man and 
a teacher of men. That the Gospel narratives were written 
at least a generation after his life closed, that they seem 
unknown to Paul, that we do not know the names of their 
authors, that their details are not substantiated by any con- 
temporary narrative, and that these details may be largely 
the arguments as it were of fervid supporters, whose quarry 
for their structure was in the Jewish Scriptures, cannot 
obscure the fact that there was some attractive person in the 
early part of the first century to whom this portraiture was 
applied, and to whom later on, and even after the John 
Gospel was written, supposedly about A. D. loo, was applied 
the first two chapters of the Matthew and the Luke, and of 
which the Mark and the John are free ; and the existence 
of this person seems amply attested by Paul, who says he 
knew James the Lord's brother (Gal. i : 19; i Cor. 9 : 5), 
and says he saw Jesus ( i Cor. 9 : i ) and had known him 
(2 Cor. 5 : 16), even giving him traits of character (2 Cor. 

(297) 



298 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

10 : I ) : though that he should afterwards have '* persecuted 
the church of God" (i Cor. 15: 9; Gal. i: 13), having 
seen and known Jesus, would imply that Jesus made no 
very favorable impression on him, and Paul " made havoc " 
of the church till he received that revelation of Jesus Christ 
(Gal. 1 : 12, 16) which the author of The Acts many years 
later elaborated from a visit to Arabia or Erebus into a 
theophany while he was on his way, as Jonah to Nineveh 
or Elishea to Damascus,* to the latter town (Gal. i: 17; 
comp. 2 Cor. 12: 32-33), but which revelation convinced 
Paul that by his resurrection Jesus was the Christ, and not 
that his works or words, his wondrous birth or heavenly 
recognition, were evidence, for he had not heard of these, if 
we judge from the four books which are all of his undis- 
puted writings. 

But the Gospels seem to be from three sources, of which 
the Mark and the more elaborate Matthew are one, the 
Luke another, with free use of the two first, and the John 
the third ; and the three first took shape, much as now, 
some time early in the second century, and the John some- 
what later, as also The Acts ; though there was some original 
of the synoptics perhaps before the fall of Jerusalem, B. C. 
70, but perhaps written abroad, and in the Greek language. 

In their English dress, and the best style of that language 
in the day of its unadorned strength and virgin purity, we 
have the discourses of Jesus, or what purports to be such. 
They are, however, not more life-like than the story of 
Joseph or Ruth or the Odyssey, though better adapted to 
the serious or religious mind. Jesus advances moral pre- 
cepts, not new perhaps, but illustrated by quaint and 
felicitous " parables " or similes ; disclosing both closeness 
of observation and fecundity of imagination ; drawn too 

* No account in the Bible is more crude than this alleged vision of 
Paul. That he should have had letters from the priests at Jerusalem 
to arrest people at Damascus, and fetch them bound to Jerusalem 
(The Acts 9 : 1-2, 14 ; 22 : 5) would scarcely be reasonable if Damas- 
cus was a suburb of Jerusalem. 



TRAITS AND OPINIONS OF JESUS. 299 

from such homely scenes and subjects that they must long 
charm by their simplicity and realism. There seems to be 
no great reason why they should have attached any culti- 
vated person to him, and so they did not, unless we allow 
Nicodemus ; but it is strange that he should win to himself 
so few followers or believers among an ignorant and credu- 
lous population, wretched and agitated as they were at the 
time. He is not shown to have been learned, or versed in 
other than Hebrew literature; he could not read Latin 
(Mark 12 : 15-16); he said Sheba was ** in the uttermost 
parts of the Earth " (Mat. 12 : 42) ; he was not accurate as 
to Hebrew history (Mark 2 : 26) ; he believed that physical 
maladies could be cured b}'' exorcism and faith in that 
exorcism on the part of the patient (Luke 5 : 24, &c.) ; and 
he declared the dervish John the Baptist the greatest of men 
(Luke 7 : 28). Yet one would say that Jesus is shown to 
be keen and penetrant as to social conduct and conditions, 
for his controversies disclose this. 

He is perhaps not responsible for being made inconsistent. 
If he is made to say " I came not to judge the world, but 
to save the world " (John 12 : 47), why should he constantly 
be adjudging the Scribes and Pharisees to be *' hypocrites ", 
** vipers " &c.? since no cultivated person would use such 
epithets. He is also shown to speak evil of the wealthy 
(Luke 18 : 25), and as encouraging an idle and thriftless 
life (Mat. 21 : 31); but these sayings must be taken in con- 
nection with the belief of Jesus or the writer, that the 
Kingdom of Heaven was " at hand ", and hence there would 
be no need for property, no occasion for industry. So, his 
indiscriminate censure of lawyers, &c. (Luke 7 : 30 ; Luke 
1 1 : 46), which may have led many Christians into the great 
vice of intolerance, may be ascribed to the warfare he was 
waging against those he regarded as standing in the way 
of pending national salvation. The same may be said of 
his praise of the poor and the meek, since these were the 
forces that were being arrayed against those who were full 



300 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

of "hypocrisy and iniquity " (Mat. 23 : 27), and who were 
"serpents, off-springs of vipers" (: 33). When we con- 
sider, on the other hand, the sermon on the Mount, and 
other elevated or tender sentiments of Jesus, we are dis- 
posed to assign the fierce discourse of the 23d of the Mat- 
thew to the reckless John Baptist, who denounced the 
Pharisees and Sadducees as "off-springs of vipers " (Mat. 
3:7), and yet John escaped the retaliation of these people, 
while Jesus did not, but even alienated some who had once 
believed on him (John 8: 31-40). In this connection must 
be noted the queer story of Dives, whose only crime was 
his prosperity, unless we add that of his tolerating the 
scrofulous beggar Lazarus about his table ; a story which a 
certain " rich man of Arimathea", who buried Jesus when 
his faithless saints had left him to rot on the cross, either 
never heard or nobly forgot ; though this rich Joseph 
merel}^ adapts the Isaiah (53 : 7). Not less repugnant to our 
sense of justice is the tale of that prodigal whose worthless 
career and wasted opportunities are, on his penitence, made 
the occasion of humiliating another son who was moral and 
dutiful. A traverse lesson to these is the parable of the 
thrifty and the unthrifty stewards (Luke 19 : 12-27), which 
may be an explanation for accepting the hospitality of the 
wealthy Zacharias (19: 2). 

The deportment of Jesus, apart from his manifest hostility 
to the ruling Jews, was chaste and simple and kindly. 
That he was charged with gluttony and wine-bibbing 
(Luke 7 : 34) perhaps shows that it was known that 
"prophets" "wore a hairy mantle to deceive" (Zech. 13: 
4) and lived on meagre fare ; besides which it must appear 
that Jesus was of a magnanimous disposition such as en- 
ables men who possess it to adapt themselves to their sur- 
roundings. He was usually tender to women and children, 
and sympathetic toward the afflicted, though he would "let 
the dead bury their dead", and said no one could be his 
di.sciple unless he hated his wife and jnother and children, 



TRAITS AND OPINIONS OF JESUS. 3OI 

&c. (Luke 14 : 26), which latter saying is a verbal expres- 
sion of extreme fanaticism, inconsistent with the general 
concept of him. He spoke harshly to his mother (John 2 : 
4 ; 19 : 26 ; Luke 8 : 21), not calling her by that dear name; 
insomuch that one might suspect he had suspicious opin- 
ions of her ; yet this may be understood as having much 
of the Shemitic idea of the obscure position that women 
should occupy when outside the household. Toward 
Magdalene, out of whom had come seven devils, he must 
have exercised some consideration as due to a social outcast 
who followed him with singular devotion. But, in what- 
ever instance he may be shown to have lacked tenderness, 
one might account for it by the fact of his absorption in 
the mighty mission he conceived himself to be engaged in. 
It may be, too, that when embarked on his tumultuary 
career he had little time to devote to those domestic rela- 
tions which soften life ; of which we get one glimpse, how- 
ever, in his visit to the home of Mary and Martha. In 
hours of meditation and relaxation, when not striving and 
urging, he must have been amiable, for he drew to himself 
the affection of women, and he must have been magnetic to 
his intimates, for they seem to have been devoted to him 
till put to a cruel test. We must set aside the grief he 
showed for Lazarus; indeed the entire incident must be dis- 
carded ; accepted only as symbolic ; as an allegory of his 
own mission to a sleeping people, which the John Gospel, 
in which it alone is told, happily adapts from the story of 
El-Ishea and Ben-Hadad, and Haza-El, (2 K. 8 : 7-15) ; for 
Lazar and El-Hazah ("dream-god") are the same, and so 
Jesus and El-Ishea are the " issuing " or " lifted-up ", while 
Ben-ha-Dad is the "Son of David", and the napkin or "wet- 
cloth" {Ma-Chebar) is the " glory" of God of which Jesus 
speaks; just as the daughter of Jair-us is a repetition of the 
story of the son of the Shun-Ameth on whom the same El- 
Ishea "stretched" {Gahar) ; which latter is easily seen as 
a story of the budding of the "forest" (Jaar) or the rising 



302 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

of the '* Nile *' {/eor). Howbeit, the contrast of the women 
of the Jewish stories with those who attended Jesus is much 
in favor of the latter, if we except Rizpah, cHannah, and 
one or two others ; and all womanhood is ennobled by the 
devotion the female friends of Jesus showed him, when we 
have one who bathed his feet with her tears and dried them 
with her hair (Luke 7 : 38, 44), and another who went early 
to the empty sepulchre only to come back with the despair- 
ing cry " they have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, 
and we know not where they have laid him " (John 20: 2) ; 
and this grief of Magdalene {Ma-Gadol-ah, "great-Mother ") 
reminds one of the grief of Kyb-Ele or Magna-Mater for 
Athys (Gr. AioSy " year ") and the search of Athor or Isis 
for the body of Osiri. 

And yet the amiable side of Jesus is in strict accord with 
the gentler side of religion ; with the cradle of all new re- 
ligions. It is innocence and tenderness, the childlike or 
feminine, docility and flowers, dimples and down, to which 
the taxed and tensified human imagination constantly re- 
curs. Jesus as Chebar Enosh, or judge of the quick and 
dead, leaves a vacancy. So does the Holy Ruach with its 
tongues of flame. These do not cool the hot temples of age 
and thought. Every new religion is a protest against the 
austerities and formulars of the old. These protests make 
the mythic dynasties. Oros succeeds Osiris, Jupiter suc- 
ceeds Saturn, Apollo succeeds Jupiter, Hyacinth succeeds 
Apollo, &c. ; and so with Juno or Sarah superceded by lo 
or Hagar. Thus Jehoah supplanted Elohim, and Jakob 
supplanted Esav, and Jesus supplanted Jakob or Israel. 
The great nature-mother has scarcely had a better fate, 
since it is Ceres and Persephone, Juno and lo, Sarah and 
Hagar, Naomi and Ruth, &c. The Hindus call these 
changes a series of incarnations. The Latin races, who 
mainly compose the Church of Rome, have somewhat sup- 
plied the too masculine Jesus with the virginal or motherly 
Mary, who in turn will some centuries hence bear the name 



TRAITS AND OPINIONS OF JESUS. 303 

of Lourdes or Gaudaloupe, as a tenderer phase. It is a 
divine procession, with its feet toward the shade, but with 
eyes averted toward the blushing dawn. 

And what else ? The maiden with her love-sorrow can- 
not go to Jesus for a confident, for he is a young man. The 
timid wife laboring in child-birth or grieving for her dead 
off-spring must also go to the Mater Dolorosa as more in 
touch. The ancient Syrian or Greek, adjudged or afflicted 
by his chief deity, would turn to the wine-god Eshach-ol or 
Escal-Apius, Zebe or Zaba-oth or Baal-Zebe-El, &c., for 
succor, as this deity, half-mortal, had suffered or might also 
suffer. So, when our Gospel story reached the more genial 
climes of Egypt and Greece, the character of Jesus was 
found to be of too severe a type, and then were prefixed the 
two first chapters of the Matthew and the Luke, with their 
sympathetic account of the mother and her infant, old as it 
was in those lands of verdure and recurrent seasons, but 
which has never yet been quite assimilated to the mind of 
the men of the desert, who require a deity of more sinewy 
arms. ' 



CHAPTER XXV. 

THE THIRD PERSON OF THE TRINITY. 

JESUS, as the second person of the Christian triad or 
trinity, has received much attention, but little is said 
of the origin of the third person. This was the Kadesh 
Ruach, called '* Holy Ghost " or " Holy Spirit." Ruach is 
also rendered ''breath" and "wind." Ma-Reach or "ap- 
pearance" may connect with the word. Ruach meant 
"wind" in Phcenician, and was personified by them as a 
deity, as Aeol-us is in the classic myths. Shekar Ruach 
stood in the court of Jehoah (i K. 22: 21), suggesting and 
executing a treacherous mission. The Ra-ah Ruach of 
Shaul was murderous (i Sam. 19: 9); and so the Nas-Ao 
(trans, "perad venture") or "hawk" Ruach of Jehoah 
which was suspected to have carried off and killed El-Ijah 
(2 K. 2 : 16). The Ezekiel (3 : 14) has Ruach Nesha (trans, 
"lifted-up," but "hawk") taking Ezekiel away by the hair, 
and this Ruach came to him as the voice of a great earth- 
quake, though The Acts (2 : 2-3) softens this down to a 
rushing wind. The early Christians seem to have thought 
it a personality of some sort (The Acts 13: 2, 4) and even 
the father of Jesus (Mat. i : 18), and these seem more dis- 
tinct than the present Christian concept. The Ezekiel (37 : 
1-14) has a voice and an earthquake bringing "together" 
{Kerob) the dry bones so that the Ruach could be put into 
them ; which gives us the sense of its being the animating 
power ; and from this vision Paul perhaps derived his con- 
ceit of a physical resurrection. The Joel (2 : 28, &c.) gives 

(304) 



THE THIRD PERSON OF THE TRINITY. 305 

the Ruach in the sense of an emanation from Jehoah which 
will be destructive to all save those who call on Jehoah, 
and as the precursor or herald of a judgment-day; and the 
early Christians (The Acts 2: 1-42) identified this Ruach 
of Joel's fancy with the necessity of preparing for the end 
of the world, and hence sold their possessions and had 
things in common (2 : 43-47), for they held Jesus to be the 
" innocent blood " of the Joel (3 : 19) whose shedding 
would cause this result. The Isaiah (32: 15-16) also has 
this Ruach poured down from above, copied by or from the 
Joel, it must seem, and the rendering of the former seems 
incorrect in our version, but would seem rather that the 
wilderness shall be to Carmel (trans, "fruitful-fields") and 
Carmel to a forest shall " turn " {Skeb) ; then hide in the 
wilderness from judgment, and Zadok-ah (Stephen's 
"righteous one", The Acts 7: 52) shall "in Carmel Ta- 
Sheb", which would accord better with the Joel, better 
with Malachi's (4: 5) Elijah the Ti-Sheb-ite, with the 
pouring of the Ruach at Shabu-oth or Pentecost, and with 
the imitation of El-Ijah by John Baptist, who may have 
derived his rite of using water on his converts from this 
passage ; for Ru-ach itself may be a word from the Egyp- 
tian hieroglyphic Ru, which was a vase from which water 
is pouring, though the word here used for " poured " {/a- 
Aar-ah; "pour", Aar-ah) is a feminine name of the Nile 
in Hebrew, perhaps from the Egyptic Aaru ("blessed"), 
the same as their Aal-u or Aa-cHenaru, the Hebrew Eden 
or Paradise. In the later Isaiah (61 : i) Ruach of Jehoah 
is identified with Ma-Shack (trans, "anointed me") of 
Jehoah, that is, the "cup-bearer", &c. ; yet it was not be- 
cause Jesus applied these names to himself that caused the 
Nazarenes to be indignant (Luke 4: 16-30), but for prefer- 
ring Gentiles to Jews, it would seem. It seems possible 
that the Greek Herach or Erach in Herach-les is the Ruach 
of the Hebrews, as he was a Phoenician deity, and repre- 
sented by the Greek Ergon, Urgos, whence we get " work ", 



306 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

"organizer", "irrigator", and perhaps "oracle", as ex- 
plained herein. 

Different from this type of animation and energy that we 
thus have of Ruach was that form of a "dove" (Heh./on- 
ah 2ii\& Jemima) which it took when it descended on Jesus 
at his baptism, as told in all the Gospels, though the John 
is silent as to the voice of heavenly recognition. The 
"dove" (Chald. Sum-mat) was the symbol on the flag of 
Assyria, was sacred to their goddess Sema- Aram-is, or 
Sema-Am-is, the " heaven-mother ", as also to the Greek 
Aphrodite-Uran-ia ; and so the "pigeon" {Kar em-Pe) was 
in Egypt the "bird of Heaven" ; and an illustration of the 
coronation of Ramases III shows four pigeons were being 
loosed by a priest with the injunction to announce to the 
four points of the compass that Horos, son of Isis and 
Hesiri, had put on the Pi-Shen-t or " the double-crown " of 
Egypt; from which Pi-Shen-t our sacred "passion" may 
come, as it occurred in the Egyptian month Pa-vShons, 
though the national flower of Egypt, the "lotus" {Pi- 
Shen; Arabic Bis hen) comes at that season, not on the Nile, 
but appears with the inundation as a white water-lily in the 
hitherto dry marshes and small canals ; and on it the 
youth-god cHar Pa-Krut, or Ahi (the Hebrew "Ehieh"?), 
a form of the deformed Ptah or Pa-Tach, is usually seated 
in the sculptures ; hence, after crossing Jordan on cHereb-ah 
(trans, "dry-ground") or the "drouth", Aeli-Shaa asks 
for a Pi'Shena-im (trans, "double-portion") of Aali-Jahu's 
Ruach (2 K. 2 : 9) ; and so the chariot of Esh and the 
horses of Esh "parted them both asunder" if "Pared and 
Ben Sheneh-Em " could mean this, for Perad is elsewhere 
the " mule " Shelomeh rode upon when he was crowned, 
and the " son of Shen-eh" may refer to Aaeli-Shaa as the 
name of the youth-god under some of his " blessed " {Aalu) 
names; just as Joseph and Josiah are when in the Mi- 
Shen-ah chariot, and Mordecai and Jonathan were of like 
position as third persons of the triad, though " second" 



THE THIRD PERSON OF THE TRINITY. 307 

(Heb. ShenaK) as to the succession. The "soul" (Egypt. 
Ba; Heb. Nephesh) was typified by a dove or pigeon with a 
human face, in Egypt, and the Greeks separated the con- 
ceit into the widely variant Pa-Syche and the Harpy-bird. 
It is in this gentle sense that Nachem is used, and " com- 
fort " those who mourn is in that verse of the Isaiah (6i : i) 
which contains Ruach and Ma-Shach and which Jesus re- 
peated at Nazareth, as also elsewhere (Isaiah 40: 1-2; 66: 
13; Zech. i: 17, &c.) ; but, as Nachem also means "re- 
pent", perhaps John and Jesus (Mat. 3: 2; 4: 17) were 
expressing in Aramaic the former meaning, and hence were 
each the "Comforter." In the John (14: 16; 16: 17, &c.) 
Jesus speaks of the Nachem or Paraclete as to come only 
when he should depart, and yet he (John 20 : 22-23) bestows 
the Ruach by breathing on them before he goes, which 
shows that the Nachem and the Ruach were not the same 
or that the original John stopped with chapter 20, and the 
added chapters were by one who understood Ruach as the 
"breath" bestowed by some superior person as part of a 
ritual; and, in any case, this bestowal of the Ruach by 
Jesus shows that the rushing wind and tongues of fire at 
Shabu-oth (The Acts 2 : 2-4) was written by one ac- 
quainted with the earlier part of the John where the Na- 
chem was promised (The Acts i: 5, 8), but not with the 
added chapter 21 of the John, and besides that he under- 
stood the Comforter and the Ruach to be the same. 

The word " Ghost", which stands for "Spirit " or Ruach 
in the English versions, is not the word li-Gev-aa (trans, 
"gave-up-the-ghost") of Abram, Ishmael, Jakob, &c., and 
which word as Gevi-ith (i Sam. 31 : 10) is applied to Shaul's 
"body" {Gupat, i Chr. 10: 12), whence Latin "Jove", 
"Jupiter", "Ave" or "hail", "Ov-um" or "circling" 
or "returning"; consonant with Hebrew cHav-ah (trans. 
"living") and spelled " Eve " ; and it would therefore seem 
that the better rendition would be " gave-up-the-body " ; 
bnt we suspect cHavv-ah to mean somewhat divine or 



308 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

heavenly, and not " life " {cHi) unless as divine ; for in the 
Chaldaic story of the Flood the saved man is sent " to Evu 
with the gods " in a secluded place at the mouth of the 
river; hence the A-Hava of the Ezra (8: 15, 21) ; and so 
Job (13 : 17, 19), when qualified to speak for God, utters a 
"declaration" {Aa-cHav-oth), asking who will contend for 
Aathah and Gev-aa (Athor and Jove ) ; and so Chav-an-ah 
or ha-Chava-Jah (trans, "shew") in the Daniel (2: 10, 11, 
24, 27, &c.), and especially verse 11, showing that it was a 
divination by a heavenly personage ; nor does cHavv-oth- 
Ja-Aair in the mystic Gilead (Num. 32 : 41 ; Judges 10: 4, 
&c.) do else than support our postulate, as Aaru is a name 
of the Egyptian heaven ; and we suggest that the words 
"Heaven", " haven ", perhaps "have", are derived from 
this cHav or Gev-aa (" Jove ", " give ") or land of cHav-il- 
ah (Gen. 2 : 11) whence flows the Pi-Shon, and which cHav- 
il-ah was son of Cush and of la-Ket-an (Gen. 10 : 7, 29) ; 
so that " gave-up-the-ghost " (^Gev-aa) would mean the 
same as " Osiri-ed ", or become Osiris, as all the devout did 
in Egypt, whence the Hebrew Aa-Sher-i (Ps. i: i) or 
"blessed"; and so "to Gev-aa" was not " give-up-the 
ghost ", but the " body ", or become " Juve "-enis or 
"young", or even Jovi-al, for the "old" {Sheb) "body" 
only was given up (if the word bears that sense), just as 
Osiris seems to have gone to or become Ta-Am or Turn, 
and as Heracles wedded Hebe in Elysium, and Eros or 
Cupid wedded Psyche there ; and so perhaps the cave of 
"the Ma-Cheph-Alah ", where Sarah or O-Siri-ah was 
buried first, means the "hidden" {Cheph ; Egyp. Chepher, 
the " scarabeus") "goddess" {El-ah),ior the "cave" or 
Me-Aar-eth seems the Egyptian goddess " truth " or Ma in 
Aaru; and this shrine was before Ma-Mere (Gen. 50 : 30), 
which latter syllable means in Egyptian " waters " or the 
"sea", and the word Ta Mar (Egyp. "the sea") would 
connect these goddesses of lower Canaan, of whom Mara or 
Na-Om-i, Lech-ai or Lech-Em, Hagar, &c., were names, for 



THE THIRD PERSON OF THE TRINITY. 309 

the Zechariah (ii : 7-14) makes Naom (trans, "beauty") 
represent Jehud-ah when she breaks the A-Chava (trans. 
" brotherhood"), perhaps the divine " destiny ", of the two 
cHab-Ol-im (trans. " bands ") or " love-children ", just as in 
Greece Agave murders her son Pen-Theos to teach us that 
religious duties are to be preferred to family affection, or, 
in accord with the story of cHav-ah or "Eve", that heaven- 
ly mysteries are not to be penetrated by the uninitiated, or 
that wine renews our youth. 

We elsewhere herein allude to the Egyptian Urau in con- 
nection with the Ru-ach. Urau means in Egyptian both 
"vulture" and "victory", and was also there the symbol 
of motherhood. Rach-am seems " vulture " in the Hebrew, 
and is also rendered " womb." This symbolic creature is 
represented in the Egyptian inscriptions as flying over the 
head of a god or king going to battle. The Hebrew ex- 
pression that the Ruach of Jehoah " came-mightily " (Z//- 
acK)^ or "over-shadowed" we would say, seems to us to 
refer to the Urau. The winged globe, often with a man's 
head within the circle, was also the emblem of the god 
Ashur and of the Assyrian kings, and appears over the 
head of the gods and monarchs even more frequently than 
in Egypt ; and the Persians copied the Assyrian form. 
The use of the eagle as the bird of Zeus or Jove, common 
to the classic figures, was copied on the Roman standards, 
and doubtless had a similar meaning if this could be traced. 
We do not doubt that this symbolism connects with the 
Hebrew Ruach, but it is not necessary to believe that it 
was the only source from which the concept was derived, 
anymore than to believe that the " dove " (Chald. Summ- 
at), borne on the Assyrian standards, was the only source. 
It must seem, however, that U-Rau and Ru-ach are some- 
what consonant. 

The belief that the Ruach or Ghost imparted or was 
" power " attends most impressions of it, for this is true even 
of the conception of it as an inward monitor or intuition or 



3IO SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

con-science. Even this latter was personified by th e ancients, 
and is represented in a degree by the Eu-Menides, Erin- 
nyes, Furiae, Dir-ae, Parc-ae, Man-es, and perhaps the 
Hathors of Egypt, the Shed-i or Shed-im of the Chaldeans, 
&c. ; though the Hebrew Shed-im were evidently " field " 
{Szd-ak)-gods or satyrs, whom one might meet in solitary 
places, and the Hebrews sacrificed their children to them 
(Ps. io6: 37), or perhaps to their chief El-Shadd-ai (trans. 
" God- Almighty "), as the Romans offered human victims 
to their Penates ; but Shed-im are " dse-mons " or "devils" 
in our version, or as (Deut. 32: 17) gods who came up 
"from the tomb" {Ma-Kibor; trans, "late"), and were 
"dreaded" (^Sear-um)^ as they also came from the tombs 
and were fierce asGadar-enes (^Gedi, "goats"; same as Seir- 
im) in the time of Jesus (Mat. 8 : 28-34) ; and yet the 
daemons of his time were more like the Aob (trans. " fa- 
miliar-spirit "), also called Baal-ath Aob at Ain-Dor (i Sam. 
28:7), to whom Shaul went to "inquire" {Ador-Esh-ah) , 
and which connects with Hosea's (13: 5) Tal-Aob-ah or 
"great-drouth", known in Arab mythism as Thai -Aba the 
destroyer, which seems the summer-heat, as Tal-ut is the 
Koran's name for Shaul, though Shawwal is retained as the 
name for the month June-July, the Hebrew Tam-muz ; and 
Aob is also " enemy " in Hebrew, as well as " bottle " or 
"water-skin", though we suspect Cher-Ub or Chor-Eb 
("Cherub", "sword", "drouth") to contain the latter 
syllable as distinctive of some evil, and so the day of Jehoah 
" Kir-Ob" or " at hand ", while Ruach (trans. " wind") and 
Cher-Ub (Ps. 18 : 10) are the same or at least associated. 

The doctrine of the " Holy " (perhaps this is from Chela, 
" shut-up") Ruach, as also that of the Me-Siach and of the 
"arch" (Gr. Urgos ; Heb. ^r«^^) -angels, seems to have 
existed among the ancients universally, in some sense or 
other, and of such perhaps were four who came to comfort 
Ai-Iob, as they seem to have divine names, for El-Iphaz the 
Teman-i is an "appearance" (Job 4: 15-16) as that of 



THE THIRD PERSON OF THE TRINITY. 3I I 

Ruach, and so Baal-Dad the Shuch-i or " anointed ", and 
Zophar the Na-Amath-i {Ametk, "truth"); as also the four 
of Dani-El who seem the four spirits of the four quarters of 
Earth who attended Osiri the judgment-god in Amen-ti. 

The Isaiah, it is seen, had separated Jehoah and his 
Ruach or the Ruach (48 : 16). In the sacred songs, too, 
there was a separation of the two by its being "sent forth" 
(Ps. 104: 30), and a distinction was made between the 
" presence" of Jehoah and that of his spirit (139: 7) ; while 
at times Jehoah rides on the wings of Ruach (Ps. 18 : 10), 
where it seems the same as the Cher-Ub, though in the same 
song (: 15) it appears as his "breath." As the majesty and 
dignity of Deity were apprehended by one writer more than 
another ; by the rhapsodist more than the historian ; it must 
have appeared that a somewhat general deity could not or 
would not confer special favors on special persons, or talk 
with them as he was said to have done with Adam, Mosheh 
Aaron, Miriam, Balaam, Shelomeh, and others, " as a man 
speaketh with his friend" (Ex. 33: 11). The higher con- 
cepts of him required that he should operate through an 
agent or medium, as earthly potentates must often do. And 
Jesus, while he seems to take at times the strongest view of 
his own relation as such agent or medium, also, as we have 
seen, defined the function of the Holy Spirit ; his idea be- 
ing that this was the evidence of God in action, in benefi- 
cent action, whom it was an unpardonable sin to resist 
(Mat. 12: 28-32; Mark 3: 28-29; Luke 12: 10); a celebrated 
saying which has done more to establish the third person 
of the Trinity as a dividuality than all else. And this 
saying was uttered, according to the Matthew and the Mark, 
on an occasion when Jesus was healing diseased persons, 
"casting out devils ", and when his method of exorcism or 
cure was alleged by his then attending critics to be that of 
one who himself had "an unclean spirit" (Mark 3: 30). 
Scarcely less weight has had the remark of Jesus in the 
John (3: 38) where the rejuvenating power of this activity 



312 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

is made essential to salvation. Paul elaborates the concept 
in the 12th chapter of i Corinthians, but it is to Jesus we 
owe its apotheosis. " God is Ruach ", he said (John 4 : 24). 
From some passages it would seem that Jesus taught that 
mere belief in the coming of God's reign would not save or 
bring the happy day, but that activity in benevolence was 
indispensable ; and the animation expressed by breathing, 
by winds, sighs, groans, by birth-throes, by healing, by the 
exercise of " power ", by works, pouring, &c., were the 
typifications, manifestations, necessary to attest Divinity 
in that evil day. But it may be questioned whether the 
Holy Spirit idea advanced by Jesus is precisely what we 
now generally understand by it ; since it was not to him the 
spiritual, the meditative, the dreamy, the dainty, the recep- 
tive, but the opposite of these ; the aggressive, operative, 
helpful, practical ; which was able to make one know good 
from evil, and enable one to stand by the good or God. As 
Ezra had dethroned El-Berith, El-Sabaoth, and El-Shaddai, 
and set up Jehoah, so Jesus associated the now inactive 
Jehoah with a deity of good works ; and this is an evolution 
which is ever going on, as Jesus has to Protestants super- 
ceded his father, as Mary does the like functions in the 
ideas of Catholics. This was largely the revolution in relig- 
ion wrought by or in the name of Jesus, and which gives 
to Christianity its force as a factor in humanics. 

Indeed, in some degree, Jesus has been by many classi- 
fied with this type of deity ; as a personification of it. In 
one instance, at an early day, it is called the Spirit of Jesus 
(The Acts 16: 7). In other parts of the New Testament 
the concept seems to supercede other concepts of God (The 
Acts 15 : 28 ; 16: 6; 28: 25; 11 : 12; 7: 51 ; i : 16; Mat. i: 
18). Paul makes the Spirit an intercessor with God 
(Rom. 8: 26). A more general concept in that day, how- 
ever, as perhaps in this, and as to Jesus, was that it was 
the " power ", that is the activity or Urgos, of God (Luke 
24: 49; The Acts I : 8), working, healing, curing, comfort- 



THE THIRD PERSON OF THE TRINITY. 313 

ing. And it could be conferred on or imparted to others 
by the disciplCvS, not by the ceremony of breathing on them, 
but by that of laying on of hands (Acts 8 : 17-19) ; yet what 
precisely was the visible effect it had as an initiatory rite 
which caused Simon to desire to buy the function does not 
appear, as Phillip was already there doing great miracles 
without exercising it or conferring it on others. 

The formula ** Father, Son, and Holy Ghost", so far as 
its use by Jesus is concerned, is found only in the Matthew 
(28 : 19) ; a conversation and an appearance of Jcvsus which 
no other writer records; and the authenticity of which is 
challenged if Jesus did not meet the disciples in Galilee 
after the crucifixion (Luke 24: 49; Acts i : 4). His last 
words in the other gospels and in The Acts do not sustain 
the formula, which may have been written at a later time 
than other parts of the Matthew (28 : 15). It may be sug- 
gested, in this connection, as the Matthew and Mark in their 
original form are generally believed to have been com- 
posed about the year A. D. 65, at which time Menachem 
(** Comforter") assumed the purple and headed the great 
Galilean revolt against Rome (Jos. "Wars", 2: 17), that 
some relation exists between these two Gospels and this 
son of Judas the Galilean ; the more as Jesus is left alive 
in Galilee by the closing verses of the Matthew, with a 
promise on his part that he would be with his friends to the 
end of the world, then at hand (Mat. 24: 34; Mark 13 : 30; 
Luke 21 : 32), and he had already promised to go to Galilee 
after he was raised up (Mat. 26 : 32 ; Mark 14: 28) ; but to 
believe that Jesus and Menachem were the same person we 
must also believe that Paul wrote subsequently to the over- 
throw of Jerusalem, which can in no wise be admitted. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

JEWISH BELIEF AS TO THE AFTER-LIFE. 

THE Jewish writings have been charged with an utter 
neglect or ignorance of the doctrine of eschatology ; 
of the state of the dead and of the continuance of the soul. 
This charge is not altogether just, as we may have indi- 
cated. The long and tedious details of ritual and list of 
sacred utensils do seem very trivial in the face of serious 
questions such as should find place in a religious book. 
But it must be remembered that most parts of these writ- 
ings are merely narrative and secular, having only an 
incidental relation to religion. The Iliad and the Argonau- 
tica are epics based on a tradition of a war between the 
" gods " (^Ili-o7i) or the gods of different peoples, over the 
detention of the Sun or the Nile or the Love-Star in Hell, 
as the names Hell-en, Helle, Col-Chas (Heb. Chela^ Hallil; 
hence O-hel, "tent " ; Nach-ash^ " darkness", "serpent ") ; 
hence we must not expect to find in such writings an ac- 
count of human events and mundane speculations. This is 
true of much of what is called the historic parts of the 
Hebrew writings. The " prophets ", the Proverbs, the 
Ecclesiastes, are somewhat metaphysical, and so are in 
touch with the ideas and speculations of their time. The 
first of these, or the poets and " prophets ", have allusions 
which are doubtless more numerous as well as more sig- 
nificant than our versions of a dead language and a past 
age can fully grasp ; that is, in reference to a second life. 
Belief in apparitions is not belief in a second existence, 

(314) 



JEWISH BELIEF AS TO THE AFTER-LIFE. 315 

but it is a station on the way ; and so is the belief in demi- 
gods. The Hebrews had many of both these. The words 
Adam and Aish and Aenash are rendered " man ", but we 
suspect that the last of these means somewhat more, or 
rather in the sense of Daniel's " glorious man ", or Chebar 
Aenosh (7: 13), for the Egyptians called a "wolf" Anash 
(Heb. Zeeb'), and it was sacred at Lyco-polis or Sisi-ut, the 
modern Asy-oot, seemingly a name of Isis, with whom the 
the wolf had some local association, for the Trojan uiEneas, 
son of Venus and Anch-Ises, was perhaps this wolf -god or 
Anash, for whom the bronze wolf stood in the Roman 
capitol, which gave rise also to the legend of Romulus and 
his wolf nurse, and the Lup-erac-alia ; and so we see (Gen. 
18: 1-2) that Jehoah came to Abram as a triad of Aenash 
who stopped the sterility of Sar-ah just as the flagellum at 
the Lupercalia averted sterility from those it struck, so that 
the Aenosh-im were perhaps a form of the jackal-god A-Nub 
of Egypt, as they are also called Male-Achi-im (trans, 
"angels"), perhaps "cut-off brothers", though in one verse 
(Gen. 19:8) Aish is applied to Lot and Aenosh-im to his 
two visitors. So, Gibbor-Chail (trans, "mighty man-of- 
valor"), such as " Jep-thah" or li-Pethach, Shaul, Boaz, 
&c., whom sometimes the Ruach Jehoah "came upon" 
{Zel-ach), or perhaps " overshadowed " so as to render them 
invisible, or was perhaps invisibly by the "side" {Zel- 
ah) of, as were often the gods in the Homeric combats, 
though Gibbor and Kibor are perhaps the same as Chebar 
or "glory", or " glorious " or " glorified ", and is perhaps 
the Egyptian Khebi or " shade " of a person, as also the 
Aabir or "mighty-one" (Gen. 49: 24), called also Abrah- 
am {Am, "with"), la-Kob, Achab or "beloved", A- 
Chabor, &c., and seems to have usually implied the deity 
of the dead, and also the dead deity or demi-god ; while 
Chail was " armor", and is perhaps a form of Goel, rendered 
"avenger", "redeemer". The sense of words, however, is 
subject to the law of physical change, or lose part of their 



3l6 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

force when adopted into a neighboring language ; besides 
which, every town or nation having its own guardian deity, 
the deity of their neighbor town may have been adopted as 
a subordinate or evil ; but in the case of a word so general 
in the old Levantine tongues as Gibor or Kibor, which 
gives us the Mul-Ciber and Kabiri of the classics, as well 
as the Guebres of modern Persia, one may see that we have 
the god of the under-world, perhaps connected with the 
Egyptian Ba (''soul") and Hebrew Aob (trans. ** familiar- 
spirit"), which latter was even called Ba-Aal-eth Aob (i 
Sam. 28: 7), the former word being untranslated, and it 
may be an Egyptian word meaning "heavenly-soul", as 
the god Ba-Aal may mean, unless it is " in-the-ram " as a 
title of Amen or Kh-Num. And the Hebrew Kibor or Bor 
("sepulchre") seems consonant with the Egyptian Bar-is 
or boat of the dead ; the Ai-Bar-ah or " ferry-boat" (2 Sam. 
19: 18) which Ai-Ber-ah or "went-over" to Ai-Bir or 
''bring-over" David, which words show that the Hebrews 
had full knowledge of the Egyptian custom and the Greek 
myth ; and this is sustained by the Machana-im to which 
David went, and which received Jakob (Gen. 32 : i), and 
where Aish-Bosh-eth or Aish-Baal reigned, for Machen-t 
was the Egyptian bark which spoke to the deceased, and to 
whom the latter was required to give the pass-words 
(Ritual 99) before he could proceed, while Abe-Nar ben- 
Ner (2 Sam. 2: 8), though his name may mean a "stone" 
or "builder", would in Egyptian suggest the sacred Nar or 
Aser or "tamarisk" (Heb. Aish-El) which grew over the 
grave of Osir-is or Shaul (i Sam. 31 : 13) ; as the Shim-ei 
who meets David in his Aibir (2 Sam. 19: 18) is the Sem 
or " chief -priest " of the great Egyptian religion. For this 
word Aiber is perhaps the god Hab or cHab of Egypt, a 
name of the learned god Thoth or Ta-cHut, perhaps the 
Hebs of Ethiopia, the Greek Agatho-Daemon, who as A- 
cHab or A-Hab was god at Je-Zer-El, and whose name like 
that of David means "love" (Gr. Agape) or Egyp-t ; and 



JEWISH BELIEF AS TO THE AFTER-LIFE. 317 

who is the Iber-ak or "immortal" of the Chaldeans and 
the Aberah-am or "with Abir" of the Abera-im (trans. 
"Hebrews"), though Abraham may also be "mighty" 
{Aibir, Gen. 49: 24) "people" {Am), dind. so "with the 
Mighty-One ", or in his bosom ; for he was buried in the 
Ma-Ceph-El-ah, or under the Chipp-Aor-eth (trans, "mercy- 
seat"), as Ma-Ceph would mean "water-hid" and Elah is 
rendered "tamarisk", for the myth was that the ark or 
cofl&n of Osiris floated to Phoenicia and grew into that tree ; 
so that " Hebrew " or Abera-im is only another name for 
Isira- or Osira-El ; and there can be no question that the 
subject of a future life and the soul was amply developed 
among the Egyptians. 

There were also wonder-lands which suggest the like 
idea. These were the Madebar or " wilderness ", Gilead, 
Har Ephraim or " hill-country of Ephraim ", &c. Eph-Ra- 
im may be "double-sight", as Ma-Re-ah (trans, "vision"), 
and Mi-Ra-im the sister of Mosheh is "visions" or "from- 
seeing " ; but Par-i or Phar-i is rendered both " bull " and 
" fruit ", so that the two " calves" made by Jere-boara may 
be meant to explain the name, for Epher itself is rendered 
"calf"; and yet Para-Dis (Cant. 2: 13; Nehe. 2: 8) is 
"orchard", "forest", and is alleged to be a Persian word 
derived from Peri, whence our word " fairy." In Hebrew 
Har is rendered mountain, and cHar or cHor or cHur is 
"cave", "white", "noble", &c., it being the Egyptian 
c/fer {" face ") or " appearance ", and in the sense of the 
Greek Hieros or "sacred", and so the Nile is the Coptic 
Eiro, as Aar-u was the Egyptian " blessed " or " holy " ; 
wherefore the goddess Hera or Juno, Hera-Kles, Jeru-salem, 
&c. ; but the Egyptian I7n cHarHeb ("show face festival"), 
when the god was brought forth from his sanctuary, must 
be considered, and these figures, certainly Osir, were always 
in "white" or cHur (Dan. 7: 9); hence the Cher-aa or 
Cher-ah (trans, "very-low" and "wroth") is descriptive of 
the " appearance " of " Jepthah" or le-Pethach and Shemu- 



31 8 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

El (Judges II : 35 ; i Sam. 15 : 11), just as cHor-eb is the 
mountain where the god appeared to Mosheh and El-ijah; 
and so the Greek Char-is ("favor") and Eu-Charis-t 
("good-favor") and Chris-t are evidently analogous to the 
"face" (Egypt. cHer) or " theo-phan-ies " ("god-faces") 
of the Egyptians; and this is why Abraham and Jakob 
came from cHaur-an (Gen. 12 : 5 ; 28 : 10 ; 29: 4), and why 
El-Ijah is the A-Char or "troubler" of Israel (i K. 18: 17), 
and why the Aor (trans. " skin ") of Mosheh's Phen-ai 
"shone" {Kar-An), though la-Sir (trans. " he took off") 
the veil when he went " before " {Pkan-ai) Jehoah, for A- 
cHer On would seem Egyptian " face- visible " ; and Un- 
Nepher was the most common title of O-Sir or As-ar ; so 
that we suspect Har Ephraim stories to preserve some ac- 
count of the appearance of a divine personage, and the 
Luke (i : 39) has preserved the concept by sending Mary 
into the " hill-country " after the annunciation. The Ma- 
Debar or " wilderness " is even more often an ideal place^ 
and seems to mean " from-speech " (Ex. 34: 33) or the 
land of silence, though in both Chaldean and Hebrew the 
word Debar is rendered "pestilence", yet often used for 
"spoke"," speech", and Ai-Sar-eth ha-Deber-im (Ex. 34: 
28) is rendered "ten commandments." We have suggested 
that the sojourn of Isra-El in Ma-Debar or " the wilder- 
ness " is a mere elaboration of the death of Osiris, which in 
classic story is the descent of Persephone, Heracles, Or- 
pheus, Odysseus, Adonis, the Chaldean Istar, and others, 
into Hades. Da-Aab is Hebrew for " melting " or " languish- 
ing " from heat, and Daeb-Aor would signify this condition 
of the "Nile" and of " light " (both Aor) ; and so Dib-ah 
and the Greek Diab-Allo both mean "slanderer", as ap- 
pears when lezia Dibb-eth or Mozia Dib-ah (Num. 13 : 32 ; 
14 : 36, 37), rendered " brought-up an evil report ", tempted 
Jehoah (Num. 14: 22) to such degree that he destroyed 
Israel in Ma-Debar after forty years or forty days, and the 
Mark (i : 12-13), amplified by the two other synoptics 



JEWISH BELIEF AS TO THE AFTER-LIFE. 319 

(Mat. 4; i-ii ; Luke 4: 1-13), uses the le-Nes (trans, 
"have tempted") of the Numbers (14: 22) and the Thi- 
Nes and Nes-Sith of the Deuteronomy (6: 16) as a refer- 
ence to Naz-areth, and perhaps to Jehoah when he ap- 
peared as or in Mas-Sah or Mo-Sheh (comp. Ex. 17 : 2, 7), 
for though Nes was " hawk " or emblem of cHoros, Osir-is, 
&c., and of the soul or immortality, in Egypt, yet Nes is 
" standard " on which was placed the Nechu-Shatan ; but 
in any case it is here seen that in the word Dib-ah or Ma- 
Debar we get the word Diab-ol or " Devil ", and in the 
sense of " liar ", usually Sheker (Debir-i-Sheker, Ex. 5: 9), 
called " bears ** or Dubb-im (2 K. 2 : 23-24) when the forty- 
two judges in Amenti are devoured, for the soul of Typho 
or Set passed into the constellation Ursa-Major ("Isis and 
Osiris ", 21), the classic Areas or Arach ; and Debar is also 
"oracle", while Sekari was a name of Osiris, especially 
when hawk-headed, as indicative of his resurrection ; 
though the sacred hawk or Bak of Egypt, which perhaps 
gave name to Bacch-us or Dio-Nyss-us, seems to appear as 
the le-Bek (trans, "wrestled") or wrestler who "strove" 
{Sar-eth) with Jakob at lab-Bok on his return from 
cHauran or A-Cher-On, and named him Israel or Osiri-El 
at the Sach-ar (trans, "day-break"), and the place was 
called Peni-El, which means "theo-phany ", for Jakob was 
about to appear in Canaan or to meet E-Sav the " veiled '' 
(Ex. 34 : 33, Ma-Sav) god, to whom he had sent Melach-im 
or "angels" (Gen. 32; 3), for Jakob's story seems an 
epitome or other version of Israel in Ma-Debar with Laban 
as the pursuing Phaorah because his goods had been stolen, 
as Heracles stole Kerberus, &c. Ja-Aar (trans, "forest") 
Ephraim, where the combat of J-Oab and Aib-Shalom 
occurred, is more like Har Ephraim, as it seems the Aar-u 
or El-ysium of the Egyptians which softened into Aal-u 
when that people introduced an "1" into their language; 
and yet the Ja-Aar slew more than the sword, for we not 
only have perhaps "gar "-den from this word, but also 



320 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

"gr"-iffon, "gir"-aff, Gar or "stranger"; hence the Sob- 
ach of the El-ah which held Aib-Shalom ; and Achima-Az 
(comp. Achima as the ''dyed" garments of Bo-Zer-ah ; 
Egyp. Akom, *' eagle") would take Be-Sor-ah (trans, 
"tidings") or "flesh" to David, to whom he said Jehoah 
had judged from his Aobi (trans, "enemies"), perhaps "fa- 
miliar-spirits" ; but one is here perhaps on the story of 
Busiris and Heracles, though the fierce and repulsive god 
Bes or Bessa seems really the rugged Melach of Tyre, who 
was perhaps god at Je-Bus or Jerusalem, and had shrines 
in Egypt, and approached in type the classic Vulcan, called 
Pa-Tach or Pa-Tah at Memphis. And this type accords 
with the Har Ephraim story of the Aish Levi (Judges 19 : 
&c.) or "certain Levite" who was a stranger in larech-eth-i 
(trans, "further-side"; Jakob's lerach or "thigh", Gen. 
32: 32) of Har Epheraim, who was an Aor-acha or "way- 
faring" man, and whose concubine was from Beth-Lech- 
Em, and who when violated unto death by Ae-Nosh-im at 
Gibe-ah he made into twelve Nat-ach-ah (Egypt. Na-t, 
goddess at Zo-iVin or T-An-is, Ps. 78: 12), or perhaps 
months as parts of the body of Nature, as the "moon" 
(Heb. larach ; Eg3^pt. Aah) divided the year, though lar-o 
or Jeor is the Nile which Osir cut into canals, and his twelve 
labors as Herach-les may be here alluded to, for Na-t or 
Ssa-t (Sais or Zoain) was the "inundation" (Egypt. So), 
the "going-fountain" (Heb. Zo-Ain) and irreverently a 
Zonah or "harlot", though at Sai she wore the shuttle of 
the "weaver" (Heb. Aar-Ag ; Gr. Arach-Ane) or "irrig- 
ator", and Mosheh is supposed to have been born at Sai, 
which was also called Rama-Sais (Ex. 12: 37); and this 
story of the Aish Levi occurs before there was any Male- 
ach (Egyp. Ouaro) in Israel (21: 25), that is, in the time 
of chaos, as Ben-Jam-in perhaps represents the lam or 
"sea" or "flood" or its monsters before the labors of the 
demi-urge or Adam-Arag-os, for the lame Pa-Tach or 
Ptah and Vulcan, and Mephi-Bosh-eth or Bes, the shaggy 



JEWISH BELIEF AS TO THE AFTER-LIFE. 32 1 

Heracles and Elijah, &c., seem to represent this "further- 
side" {lerack-etk) of Har Epheraim, before the Ma-A-Chel~ 
ach-ah (trans. ** knife"), perhaps " canals ", were used on 
the Pele-Gesh, or the daughters of Shiloh (Judges 21 : 21) 
came yearly to cHul in the Me-cHol-oth. 

Several times we are told of Aar-Aph-El or Aa-Raph-El 
(i K. 8 : 12 ; Ps. 18: 9 ; Ex. 20: 21), where Jehoah is said 
to Shechan or "dwell." This of course connects with the 
classic Orpheus, a name of Deity in Asia Minor and upper 
Greece, whom the poets make son of the river-god Ea-Ger 
(Achar? A-Cher-on?), and on the advent of Bakk-us the 
older god is drowned in the Hebrus, which seems the 
Hebrew Chebar or " glorious ", or Kibor the " grave " ; and 
this is a version of the Osir myth. If the word is used as 
Aara-Phel, we would have the Hebrew Jeor or Nile " fall- 
ing" (^Phel, or Nephel) or going into its Bor or Kibor; 
hence the shrine Philae at the first cataract and the Greek 
word for " love ", and the legend of Hephae-Satos falling 
from "Heaven" (Egypt. Aar-u), and of Sat-an doing the 
like, wherefore Cheph-Aor or " scarabeus ", or Jom Chipp- 
Aor, &c. ; and we could then assign a reasonable meaning 
for the Aph-El-im (trans. " tumors ") which afflicted Ekron 
or Acheron and other towns (i Sam. 5 : 6, &c.) when the 
Aron was there, for Ap or Aph is Egyptian for a " fly ", 
which may apply here to the Scar-Ab or Sichor-Ap (Egypt. 
Ckepher), the symbol of the hidden-world and of immor- 
tality, which was placed on the breast of the Egyptian dead, 
and which doubtless as a figure on the lid of the Aar-On 
or " ark " gave to it the name Cheph-Aor-eth or "mercy- 
seat." Aar-Aph perhaps became shortened to Rapha, 
which is rendered " healer ", " physician ", " giant ", 
"dead", and at length gave us the angel Rapha-El ; while 
in Egypt Rapha was the wife of the Nile, and A-Rep means 
"wine." Reph-Idi-im (Ex. 17 : 12) was explained by a 
Story about the lada-i or " hands " of Mosheh, which plays 
on either or both " dead " and " healed ", and they " were 



322 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

Steady" {Ea-mun-ak), perhaps an allusion to the judgment 
in Amen-ti or Hades, onlj'^ when supported by Aah-Aron 
and cHur, for at sundown Aa-Malek was defeated, as he 
seems here " the Sun "or Pha-Re, perhaps an allusion to 
Pha-Re-Aoh ("the Sun-Moon") or title of the Egyptian 
monarch, overcome by the "true" {Amen) or intellectual- 
Sun, called Amen-Ra, represented perhaps by the " winged- 
sun ", which would be Ra-Aph or Aph-Ru, a name of 
A-Nub (Heb. Nebo) or Mosheh, as Re-Aph-Iadi-im sug- 
gests also " wisdom " {lada), though Jehoah-Nissi (Dio- 
Nys-us?) and "lad on the Cas of lah" (trans. "Jehoah has 
sworn") seems "hand on the cup of Jehoah." Repha-im, 
indeed, is a locality for fighting. But the Isaiah (14 : 12), 
seeming to call the king of Babylon Hal-El son of Sachar 
(trans. " day-star, son of morning "), connects this with the 
preceding verses (9-10), where " Sheol, out of Tach-ath 
Rog-Az-ah,'^ or " Hades, from his fastening in his coffin ", 
cries out at the arrival there of Nebu-Chad-Nezzar, and for 
him awakes Rapha-im Chel Athnd-i, perhaps " phantoms of 
all-wise ones " as Athud may be the Greek Thad^ " wise ", 
as in Thad-Dios, but in the Zechariah (10 : 3) is rendered 
" he-goats " and the word Cary-Atid would perhaps sustain 
the satyr idea as well as the other ; while Rapha-im perhaps 
is better understood from the French word "reve" 
("dream"), our " reve "-ry, and perhaps "rap"-ture and 
" rhap "-sody, though " ruff "-ian, be-" reft ", &c., may be 
mentioned; the Athud (Gen. 31 : 10-12) being those who 
"rav "-ished Jakob's flock ; and Chel (usually trans. " all ") 
may refer to the condition of the Repha-im as " weak " 
{Chel-ith) in the passage (Isaiah 14 : 10) ; while Rog-Az-ah 
seems, not " moved ", but the Arag-Az (trans. " coffer") of 
the guilt-offering (i Sam. 6:8), perhaps the Greek Argo; 
and Tech-ath or Teka is the " fastened " " beneath ", and is 
apparently from the Egyptian word which Diodorus calls 
in Greek Teke, rendered "repository" of the dead: Daniel's 
Mene Tek-El of the " cloven-foot " {Peres) ; so that the 



JEWISH BELIEF AS TO THE AFTER-LIFE. 323 

sentence presents a vivid picture of the condition of Sheol, 
quite Dantesque in its terrors, and unlike the city (Isaiah 
62 : 12) Derush-ah, not forsaken, where the Ge-Aula-i are 
to be. Both Meth and Rapha-im are rendered *' dead " in 
another passage (Isaiah 26: 19), where Neb-Alath-i is 
rendered "dead-bodies", suggesting A-Nub-is, but as Muth 
is the usual word for " dead" the reading may be " Shall 
live thy 'true'" {Ametk) as adjudged by Anubis, who 
weighed the heart of the dead against the "ostrich " (^Ranmi)- 
feather, and so Ranen-u (trans, "sing") is in the verse, and 
Rann-u of the asp-head was guardian of vineyards and 
gardens in Egypt, and perhaps of the awakening of Earth 
to fecundity, or to " casting-out Repha-im ", as in the verse, 
which here perhaps has the sense of demons. Eu-Ropa, 
daughter of Phoenician Agenor, a phase of Persephone, 
Helen, &c., is supposed to be the same as Oreb or " the 
West ", which thus would connect with Rapha or Aarepha- 
El (trans. " thick-darkness") or Ereb-us, and she may have 
been thus understood since she is made mother of Min-os, 
Rhad-Amanthus ("red" or "rosy-Amenti "), and Sar-Ap- 
Adon or Sarpedon ; but perhaps the right or original form 
was Eur- or Aur-Ope or -Hapi, which includes two names 
of the Nile, as well as that of Ops or Rhsea (-Api) the 
mother of Jupiter or ^gyp-iter ; and that Aur-Apa was the 
original form may appear from the other name of her spouse, 
which was Aster-ius, or A-Satar, as the "hidden" (male of 
Esther or Astar-te), but Sat-Aur or the flowing-Nile, which 
"hid" the fair land at times to excess. Europa was the 
same as Hippo-Damia, also mother of Sar-Apis-Adon or Sar- 
Pe-Adon, as the Hippo is perhaps Hapi, and she was 
daughter of Belle-Roph-on or Baal-Rapha, a Lycian name 
of Heracles or Vulcan, or the Hebrew Kain or Tubal-Kain 
or Adam or Shaul ; and Belle-Roph-on warred with the 
Solym-i, and with Chim-iEra (Gr. Kaimor, " goat " ; Heb. 
Chamor, "ass"), perhaps Shimshon's Chamor on Chamor- 
eth (trans. " heaps on heaps "), and so perhaps in the Genesis 
(14:) Am-Raph-El king of Shinar (comp. Bal-El or "con- 



324 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

fused" in the plain of Shinar), and who was one of the 
four who cHebar (trans, "joined") or " glorious" inSidd- 
im, who overcome the Chim-Esh-ah (trans, "five "), perhaps 
explained by Chamor (trans. " slime-pits "), and who leck 
(trans, "judged ") the Repha-im, &c. ; and Baal-Rophon's 
brother was Al-Chimen-us or Alec-Amin, and wife Acham- 
One (Heb. Achima, " dyed " ; Egyp. Akhom, " eagle ") or 
Acha-Amone, suggesting Alcmena the mother of Heracles ; 
and Baal-Rophon rode Pega-Sus (Heb. "corpse-horse"), 
and hence was the man (Zech. i : 8- 11) on the Sus-Adam, 
or the Centaur who stood among the Hadas-im (trans, 
"myrtles") in the "bottom" or shadows, who with his 
fellow horse-men had been sent by Jehoah to their te. 
Hallach (trans, "walk-to-and fro"), or "to Hell", and who 
found Earth Shab-eth and Shokat-eth, perhaps "resting" 
and " corrupt," for Hadas-im seems to us the inhabitants of 
Hades. 

The controverted passage of the Job (19 : 25-27), as ren- 
dered in English, has tended largely to sustain the quaint 
doctrine of a bodily or fleshly resurrection. Bessor, how- 
ever, may not be "flesh", but "tidings" (2 Sam. 18: 19, 
&c.), as may appear from "words" (v. 23), and we may 
render it " From my information I shall see Eelo-ha", 
which seems a form of the Egyptian Aal-u or Elysium ; and 
this after his Aor is destroyed, for his 6^-Oel (trans. " re- 
deemer") or "avenger" exists, "and Acheron unto dust 
shall come" {^^ Acheron al-Epher ktim-V) ; for Job or Ai- 
Aob seems as Egypt afiiicted, not "with sore boils ", but "in 
the tabernacle of the Sun," as "in Shechan Ra" evidently 
means, and his Aor or "Nile", not "skin", has been ab- 
sorbed by or into Acheron or the Mediterranean (Deut. 34 : 
2), which some suppose to be the Set or Typh-on of the 
Osir-is myth. Heaven or G-Oel may be personified as his 
avenger or redeemer as the Greeks personified Aal-u into 
Aeol-us the winds, and as the Hebrew writer personifies it 
into the woman Ja-Aal the Baruch or "blessed" (Judges 
5 : 24), for the " G " in G-Oel and the " Ja " in Ja-Aal are 



JEWISH BELIEF AS TO THE AFTER-LIFE. 325 

probably idiomatic or prosthetic. As an Egyptian concept, 
adopted by the Hebrews or into their canon, the sense of 
the passage may be taken much as a bodily or physical 
resurrection, for it might seem, from the extreme care that 
that people exercised in their embalming, as well as in the 
decoration and stability of their sepulchres, that they be- 
lieved there would be further life or use for the body, and 
it seems from their sculptures and writings that after judg- 
ment was passed on the dead that the Ba or " soul " did go 
back into the form or body, though the Khu or ** intelli- 
gence " and the Ka or " existence " did not, and this latter 
seems the cHai or*' life" or **liveth"of the Hebrews; 
though we doubt if any precise or general rule can be 
applied to these interpretations. 

The famous phrase of the Psalm (i6: 9-10) is often 
adduced to sustain the dogma of a physical resurrection ; 
at least that of Jesus. The prayer says (v. 10) " For not 
will leave my Neph-esh ("life ", " soul ") to Sheol; nor will 
give thy cHa-Sid-e or cHas-Id-e to Ra-oth Shech-ath". 
cHas-Id is usually rendered "pious", and is the Hebrew 
name of the stork or ibis, the Egyptian Hab or cHab, so 
sacred there that death was the instant penalt}'' for killing 
it, though the stork and the ibis are not the same; but 
we suspect cHas-Id-e to be a plural form, and perhaps 
"saints" would be the more correct rendering. Shach- 
ath is usually rendered " destruction ", as Shech-at is 
"kill," and sometimes the former is "pit" or "grave." 
In Egypt it was one of the names of the death-barge, 
but was also the name of the goddess of Memphis, Shechit, 
of the " lioness "-(Egy p. Pa- O«0 or "cat"-(Arab. Kat or 
Kitta)'h!^2A, wife of Pa-Tach or " Ptah ", and who perhaps 
represented the scant inundation, and sequent famine or 
" evil " (Heb. Ra-ah, Ra-oth^, which word is rendered "see" 
in the passage, so that we may have "nor give thy saints 
to the wicked goddess ", which was the empty "trough" 
{Shek'Otk) of Rebekah, though Sech-et was also the name 



326 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

of a sea-vessel and perhaps was a feminine of Acheron ; 
and that the allusion is to this deity, as one adored or 
feared in Canaan, may be sustained by the inscription 
(Boeckh, Corp. Insc. Gr.) on the tomb of a Phoenician or 
Hebrew at Athens, who calls himself " Ben cHodesh A- 
Shechath-i ", perhaps " son of his new Sach-ath ", though 
cHodesh was the "new-moon", and the cat-goddess of 
Bubastis or Buba-Satis, a benevolent form of the inunda- 
tion, was identified by the Greeks with Diana the moon- 
goddess ; and yet, that Sheol and Shech or Siach were 
closely connected must appear, not only from Shaul being 
called by David "not Me-Shach" (2 Sam. i : 21), but from 
the transition or translation (Dan. i : 7) of Me-Shael into 
Me-Shech, which may mean "from Sheol" as equivalent to 
" from Shech", and that they mean the same ; confirmed as 
this seems by the name Osiri-Sekeri when that deity ap- 
pears in his phase of risen from the dead, which must be 
in the sense of Aur-t (trans, "awake") of the Isaiah (51 : 
9; 52: i); but the Egyptian priests insisted that they did 
not adore demi-gods or apotheosize men, and that Osir was 
a transitory incarnation, and yet Shichor was the Nile 
which awoke to life yearly, and the" Ibis ", the cHasid of 
the Hebrews, came with its resurrection, and went away 
when the ^^-(Egypt. " inundation ") c//er (Egypt. " face "), 
had passed into the Acher-on or into its bed or "trough" 
(^S/tek-oik)y the Har-Hat-im to the Shek-oth or " troughs 
of the to water" (Ex. 2 : 16). 

The late book Daniel, developing such figures as the last 
verses of the Isaiah, seems (Dan. 12: 1-3) to refer to the 
revolt of Ma-Caba-ios (Greek form) and calls him Micha- 
El or Mi-Chael, and uses a forceful figure of speech against 
the Hellenized Jews, though veiled in the oracular language 
of that sort of literature. Many, it says, from their " sleep " 
(^Shen) of Earth-dust shall be "awake" {^Kiz)y some to 
cHaia Aolam (trans, "life everlasting"), some to cHa- 
Raph-oth (trans, "shame"), to Dor-Eon Aolam (trans. 



JEWISH BELIEF AS TO THE AFTER-LIFE. 327 

"contempt everlasting") J but it may be rendered the 
** great " {Raba-im) from their year of Earth-dust shall he 
summer, some to life everlasting, some to winter, to a 
Dorian Olym-pus ; for Micha-El may be Apollo A-Mycleos. 
The Isaiah (66: 24) seems to have attacked similar foes, 
whose Ola-Aeth (perhaps *' childhood ") shall not die, and 
their " manhood " {Aish) not "honorable" {Ckeb-ak) , a.n& 
they shall be Dor-Eon ("oblivious"?) to all "tidings" 
(j^^jj^r) / which seems a reference to an "eternal-round" 
{Dor-Eo7i) of transmigration into beasts, which was the 
fate of the wicked according to the Egyptians, for the writer 
(Isaiah 66: 17) is speaking of those who worship the She- 
kez and the Aa-Chebar (trans. " mouse "), and who eat flesh 
of the cHezir, and it was the very wicked whose soul was 
put into swine, a beast eaten at the Egyptian feasts of the 
new moon. The Daniel, appropriating the idea of a re- 
stored Jerusalem and an extension of the Jewish religion 
to all people, set forth in the latter part of this chapter of 
the Isaiah, seizes upon several of its words, perhaps making 
his Micha-El out of the Aa-Chebar, as Mygale is Greek 
for " shrew-mouse", a beast sacred in Egypt to the goddess 
Uat of Buto and to cHorus, in whom the Greeks recognized 
their Latona and Apollo, which latter was identified with 
the famous shrine at Amyclse near Sparta. But the Daniel 
continues, and says the Ma-Sech-Il-im (trans, "wise") are 
to shine as the Rakia, and Sakul is the attendant-genius of 
Chaldean divinities, appearing as a smaller person beside 
them ; but the Daniel fails to catch or disdains to notice 
the heathen Tav (trans, "midst") or "cross" of the Isaiah 
(66: 17; comp. Ezek. 9: 4, 6), which was carried as the 
symbol of " life " {Anache) by Egyptian divinities, as the 
pine-cone bj' the Chaldean and Assyrian, though Daniel is 
told to go and Nucha (trans, "rest"). 

The disappearance of " Elijah" or Aeli-Jahu may not be 
closely reckoned with as an instance of the Jewish belief in 
a future life, since there can be no reasonable doubt but 



328 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE, 

that he was the Canaanite deity, typifying the old year or 
the Sun or the Nile, and was "Enoch" or cHan-och (Gen. 
5: 21-24), who lived three hundred and sixty-five years or 
days; though "was not" (Atnan), spoken of his disap- 
pearance, means also a "ship" or a "cloud." 

The song of cHizak-Jahu (" Hezek-Iah") has a strange 
passage (Isaiah 38 : 17-18) on this subject; but this con- 
nects with the curious story of his sickness, which seems to 
us may be a story of a descent into Sheol or Hades. He 
was probably a real person, though his name means the 
"caught"- or " strong "-Jehoah, as usually rendered, but is 
"recovered" (Isaiah 39: i) when applied to cHizak-Iah 
himself, which sustains our view, for in the preceding chap- 
ter (38 : 9) "sick and was recovered of his sickness " is " in 
his cHal-oth and he was from cHele-i ", and this seems to 
say that he wrote from Hades, as we suspect the word cHel 
to mean here a locality. The "wonder" (^Moph-etk; comp. 
Moph or "Memphis") which was done in the land (2 Chr. 
32 : 31 ), could not have been the miracle against Sena-Cher- 
ib, for the Chronicler (2 Chr. 32: 21) finds a modification 
for this prodigious calamity which shows he had little 
belief in it, but the ambassadors or wise-men from Babylon 
probably came to inquire into the cHazak or " recovery " or 
"sign" {Moph-etk) given to cHizak-Iah (2 Chr. 32 : 24). A 
Neb-ie (A-Nub, who weighed the heart) or " prophet", one 
"Isaiah" (le-Sha-Aa-Iahu), to whom the book of that name 
was afterwards ascribed, when the king was " sick to death " 
came and told him that Jehoah said the king should die, 
but before the prophet was gone out of the city of the Tich- 
Omah, perhaps the Teke or " repository " of Diodorus's ac- 
count of the Egyptian dead, and the Teka or Tach-ath 
(trans, "fastened", "beneath", &c.) of the Hebrew, he 
was told to reverse the message ; so he put a cake of figs 
on the Shech-an (trans. " boil ") or sepulchre of the king, 
for this Shechan or Mi-Shechan, the sacred " tabernacle " 
of the Jews, was the Egyptian word for the place where 



JEWISH BELIEF AS TO THE AFTER-LIFE. 329 

the new life was begun; and this was done, and "he lived" 
{le-cHu), not " recovered " ; i\iQ Debel-eth Te-Eeni-im (trans. 
" cake of figs ") perhaps suggesting to the Greek period of 
the Chronicler the Greek Diaballo or "slanderer" as cast 
out of the pious king, and hence is omitted the incident (2 
Chr. 32: 24), but speaks of the "sign" or Mopheth given 
when the king was " sick even unto death ", which " sign " 
is called Aoth (2 K. 20 : 8), as perhaps Uth-a or " bal- 
ance" of the Egyptian judgment-hall of Amen-ti, the 
Roman Libra or scales, from a name of Bacchus or Liber, 
though Uta was the symbolic " eye " of Osiris ; while the 
Te-Eeni or " fig " (Egypt. Neha), fruit emblem of Egypt, 
sacred to the wife of Seb and mother of Osiris, perhaps 
gave the name Naar to a Hebrew "youth" or "river" 
(Nahar). The king was not satisfied with the Debel-eth, 
but wished to have the Aoth to assure him he would Aali- 
ith (trans. " go-up ") in three days to the Beith-Jehoah, 
where in the song (Isaiah 38: 20) we have "Jehoah to 
Hoshi-Ia-Aen-i, and his Na-Gin-oth Nena-Gin", &c., which 
suggests Hosannas in " gardens " {Gan-im); but, strange to 
say, this disjointed account of the Aoth assigns it both to 
the "recovery" of the king (Isaiah 38 : 21-22) and to the 
relief of the town from Senacherib (38 : 6-7) ; for in that 
book the effort seems to be to fit the song into the story, 
and assign a ritualistic anthem or prayer to cHizek-Iah's 
story, but the song could have suggested the "sickness" of 
the book of the Kings. This Aoth or Mo-Peth, related in 
the 2 Kings, and mentioned briefly in the Isaiah, was how 
the Zel (trans, "shadow"; comp. A-Zel or "departed") 
should go, and the play is on the word Ma-Aal-ath, which is 
used seven times within three verses (2 K. 20 : 9-11), ren- 
dered " steps " five times, " dial " once, and in the English 
version omitted once at the close of verse 11 as redundant ; but 
all referable, it must seem, to the Aali-ith (trans, "go-up ") of 
verse 8 and the Ta-Aal-eh (trans. " go-up ") of verse 5, for 
the word is usually rendered as of somewhat that was above 



330 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

or Upon, and thus connects with the Egyptian Aal-u or 
Heaven, with El, Elohim, &c., the fifteen Psalms (120-134) 
being Sur Ma-Aal-ath (trans. " song of ascents "), perhaps 
of the " blessed ", for David is heard in his prosperity to 
call himself (i Chr. 17: 17) "the man of the Ma-Aal-ah", 
which seems a place instead of " high-degree " ; and this 
view draws support from its connection with Achaz (2 K. 
16 : 6), an impious king, who lost Aeil-ath, so that the 
Jews were driven Me-Aeil-oth or "from Aeil-oth", and 
Achaz got him an altar from Damma-Sek, " offered there- 
on " {la-Aal Aal-i,), took the Mi-Shek (perhaps "veil" or 
" image ") of the Shab-ath, &c., and so acted that the 
more zealous Chronicler (2 Chr. 28:) elaborates his reign 
into a chapter of calamities as if " from Aeil-ath " was 
understood by him literally " from Heaven " ; so that the 
Ma-Aal-ath of Achaz, whereby his son's fate v^ras tested, 
was perhaps his sepulchre or image (2 Chr. 28 : 24 ; comp. 
the Aal of Strabo 17: 2: 3) beside which his son was 
placed, and when the Zel turned Acheron-eth (trans. " back- 
ward") it perhaps meant a future life and an A-Zil (trans, 
"defend", 2 K. 20 : 6) or "shadow" from Assur or "cap- 
tivity ", though this Zel or A-Zil may be the winged soul 
of the " departed " {A 2- El) Ach-Az. Howbeit, in his sup- 
posed song, cHizek-Jahu declares that Adon-ai loved his 
Nephesh (trans, "soul" ; often " life") from "this Shak-etha, 
from Shak-eth'' (trans. " from the pit of corruption"), and 
cast his sins " behind " {Achor-i) his Gev (trans. " back "; 
usually "gave-up-ghost"), suggesting "Jove"; and then 
follows the very sombre passage (Isaiah 38 : 18), identify- 
ing Sheol and Bor with death, but only perhaps as applied 
to praising and celebrating, and hoping for truth from 
Adonai, which seems to accord with Egyptian and Greek 
concepts, as it seems to leave the dead without sensibility 
or reason for further activity. It is notable in this thanks- 
giving song that nought is said of the discomfiture of 
Senacherib, and that the two accounts of that prodigy in 



JEWISH BELIEF AS TO THE AFTER-LIFE. 33I 

the 2 Kings and the Isaiah are more brief than the account 
of the sickness of cHizek-Jahu, and both say the am- 
bassadors came because of the sickness ; whereas the 
Chronicler, who only mentions Aal-i (2 Chr. 32 : 25), 
which we have as "rendered" and " lifted-up " (to show 
that he knows the story of the Aal-ath), while he speaks of 
Mopheth or "sign" as the cause of the visit of the men 
of the East or "ambassadors" (^Ma-Liz-i), with their 
Sepher-im {tT2in.s. "writings") 2lvA Manach-ah (trans, "pres- 
ent"), yet says nought of the Zel or "shadow " save that 
cHizek-Jahu Zel-ach (trans, "prospered") in his works, 
though* " forsook him the Elohim to Nas-oth " or " try " 
him, to Raa-ath or "see" (also "shepherds" and "evil") 
all that was in his heart, is the reason given for the embassy 
(2 Chr. 32: 31). One can see in these narratives where 
the Matthew got its wise men, as Sepher (Heb. "scribe") 
is almost the Greek " wise ", and where the Luke found its 
shepherds and angels, but the star of the Matthew, if de- 
rived from this story, must have been suggested by the Zel 
or the Aoth or Mopheth, or by the Ma-Aal-oth ; and we 
suspect this latter, as Ma- Aal-i (Dan. 6: 14) is rendered 
"going-down", as the Egyptian Em-Aal-u would mean 
"not-Aal-u", and hence the Isaic (14: 11-15) drama of 
h-Eilel or "the Ail-El", who said "the Heavens Ae-Ael-eh 
Mi-Ma- Aal ", perhaps " ascend and descend ", &c. ; for the 
word doubtless had opposite meanings, as one sect or the 
other wrote the account, since (Ex. 15: 11) Ba-Ael-im is 
rendered " among-the-gods ", while "the Ba-Aal" is a bad 
deity. In any case, we suggest that the original account in 
2 Kings of cHizak-Jahu's sickness recalls, by the wealth he 
is said to have had, the visit of Rharasinitus (Ramases III.) 
to Ceres, from whom he won at dice ; preserved also per- 
haps in the story of Shelomeh and Sheba ; and so Aal-at-ah 
or Aa-Lat-ah (trans, "dark") and T-Ared-Am-ah (trans, 
"deep-sleep") both fell on Abram, and the latter is easily 
Hebrew for the "descended-maid", as Persephone might be 



332 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

called (Gen. 15 : 12, 17) ; but we see that on the third day 
cHizek-Jahu or the ** caught "-Jehoah (comp. Abshalom 
cHazak by the boughs of the Ael-eh) " went up " {Ael-ah) 
to Beith-Jehoah, a place described perhaps (2 K. 19: 29-32) 
as the third year of a " sign " mentioned in a fragmentary 
poem apparently addressed to Senacherib, and out of which 
the other Aoth may have grown, though it is evidently rel- 
ative to the remnant which Ezra brought back, and which 
is to bear fruit to Ma-Aal-ah (trans. " upward ") ; while, as 
to the Senach-Erib prodigy itself, it may be necessary to 
know that Senach meant "grasshopper" or "locust" in 
Egyptian (Heb. Salaam)^ and that Ae-Rabbah was the 
"locusts" of Mosheh's plague-drama in that country and 
Ae-Rob was the "flies" (Ex. 8 : 21 ; 10: 4), so there is no 
occasion for the Senacherib ( Senach- Arob) story to be re- 
membered as a sign or otherwise. 

There are, certainly, conflicting texts (Eccle. 3 : 18-21 ; 
comp. 12 : 7) ; texts directly in point ; but the mass of evi- 
dence is the other wa}^ and one cannot fail to detect that 
the Jews shared in the general belief of all the ancients as 
to some sort of future existence ; wandering, vague, cheer- 
less, though it may have been. The very name " Hebrew" 
or Aberai, as we have said, was apparently from the Chal- 
dean Iber-ak, "immortal", though the Jews rendered Bar- 
uch "blessed", and seem to have applied Ber-itk (trans, 
"covenant") to a worldly condition, and the word Bor to 
the " grave " ; while, if we take Aberai as connected with 
the Bari or passage-boat of the Egyptian dead, with which 
we must connect their " broad " (Egyp. U-Sakh ; hence Pa- 
Sack or " Pass-over ") barges, which were Sechet or At 
when boats of the sea, we possess a key to the sombre 
religion of the Aberai-im or Hebrews and Egyptians, for the 
latter detested the Mediterranean (Heb. Acheron), perhaps 
because it absorbed the Nile or because from it came the 
northern pirates, and hence Am or Am-t (perhaps the Heb. 
I- Am or J- Am, " sea ") was the monster the Greeks called 



JEWISH BELIEF AS TO THE AFTER-LIFE. 333 

Ker-Ber-os, who was "devourer " (Egyp. Am) in Amen-ti 
or Am-Chet-epk (Egyp. " wicked "), which latter perhaps 
was from the cHitt-i (** Hittites") or Phoenician rovers, 
whence cHatte-ath (Heb. " sin "), so that this Am-Chet-eph 
or Ker-Ber-os, "devourer of the wicked", lay at the mouth 
of the Nile, the coast of Acheron, and leads us to understand 
why Ben- Jam-in or " son-of-the-sea " killed his mother Ra- 
cHel or the Nile, as it also explains why Kain is told (Gen. 
4: 7) if he does not "well" l^Tob) "to Pe-Tach cHatta-ath 
couching, and unto thee shall be his Shuk-ath ", for Shuk- 
eth (trans, "desire ") is not only the ship of the cHitt-ites 
with the " mouth " or Pataik-os (the prow-head, often a 
monster) of the Phoenician ships or Sech-ath (Heb. " pit ", 
"destruction"), but was this Am-Chet-eph of the "croco- 
dile " (Egyp. Am-SacK) or other monstrous visage, which 
perhaps gave name to the Me-Enesh (" water- wolf "?) or 
war-ship of the Egyptians, and Pa-Tach the Egyptian god 
"Ptah", is only symbolically " door " or "mouth" in the 
phrase, as it would be Hebrew for " mouth-held " ; hence 
Ae-cHito-phel is the " wicked -fallen." And so Ae-Biir 
(trans. " pass-through") the fire to Molech seems different 
from Aberai-Am who at death would pass-over the Am or 
I-am or "water " (Heb. and Egyp. Ma or Ma-u), which Ma 
was also "truth" in the Egyptian. But the word for 
"boat " (Egyp. Oim or Oa) may be even more important in 
this connection, as Aa-Oua or le-Oua would be " great- 
barge", and the Hebrew form might be lehoah or Jehoah, 
corresponding to the Chaldean Hoa or Ea, a sea-god, for it 
seems probable that Jehoah was of like concept as Aaberah- 
Am, and with David when he passed over Jordan from Ma- 
cHana-im in the Aa-Ber-ah ; that is, he or they were God 
of those who could pass over ; for the custom in Egypt was 
to convey the dead to the sacred lake of the district or nome, 
where the judges were assembled, and where he was subject 
to such accusation as anyone might prefer, but if acquitted 
or not accused he became one of the " justified " {Turn or 



334 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

Cheru)y and placed in charge of the Cher-u, or Cher-on as 
Diodorus calls him, and upon the Bar-i, which was towed 
by a larger " boat " or " barge " (Oua) to the happy shore; 
and it was of the Aaberai-im or J-Oua-im ("Jews "?) that 
Je-Hoah was Aeloh-im, as Aa-Berah-Am the eponj'^mous 
ancestor, &Cv ; but the Aar-On or "ark" of the Aberai-im 
or I-Sar-Ael-i ("Israelites") seems to be the name of the 
place itself, from Aar-u and Ouon (Egyp. "visible"), or 
Aal-u-Ouon, the Hebrew " Elion" (trans, "most-high") in 
case of Melechi-Zadek when he " manifested " himself to 
Abram, for he was Set or Sat-ich (Greek "Styx"), as the 
Egyptians had no letter for "D"; so that the Aar-On and 
Mi-Shech-An (trans, "tabernacle") were themselves an 
evidence that the Jews believed in a future life. The refer- 
ence of Jesus (Luke i6: 22-23) to Abraham's "bosom" 
(Heb. cHaik) is pertinent in this connection, and the word 
Caique (Turkish Kaik) is still used in the Levant for a 
boat, similar to the Aber-ah or Bar-is ; for we must under- 
stand that Jesus spoke his native tongue, so that his mean- 
ing was, not " bosom ", it must seem, but the sacred boat in 
which all Abera-im or " Hebrews " passed over ; and so 
his reference to Chebar Aenosh as coming in the " clouds " 
(Heb. Anan-im) may also be rendered " ships" {Anan-im). 
In that future life there could not well be but one judge 
or monarch to pronounce the sentence; one Debir or 
"oracle." In a little fortress like Jerusalem the same relig- 
ious sect could have but one deity to adjust the accounts 
between them. Three or four miles away, at Nob, it must 
seem that the Egyptian A-Nub or the Greek Niobe was god 
or goddess, and so the nearby Gibe-ah of Shaul was from 
its name a shrine of some female Gibor or Kibor or Aa-Bir, 
which as the " den " (Dan. 6 : 16) or Gobbe god meant the 
same thing. Monotheism logically exists among a people 
who are of the same town or tribe or nation. A town such 
as that of Jerusalem, dependent mainly on its shrine for the 
prosperity of its inhabitants, was entitled to little respect for 



JEWISH BELIEF AS TO THE AFTER-LIFE. 335 

its bold claim to monotheism. Every nation and even 
every person really has but one deity. The necessity of 
monotheism, however, is merely functional, and applies rather 
to a judge of the dead than to a deity of the living, since 
different judges might have different concepts of the merits 
or demerits of human actions, or rather of ** final causes." 
In the adjustment which was at last made of the Hellenic 
Pantheon it was essential to say that the sentence or decree 
of one deity could not be revoked by another. A realm 
peopled with deities would seem a more democratic or 
popular ideal, and is at bottom what all concepts of religion 
make of Heaven, save as affected by this need of a single 
arbiter ; and doubtless the Hebrew scriptures would have 
dealt more fully and clearly with the subject of a future 
state if there had not been so many deities in Canaan, or rather 
so many tribes and towns with a separate name for God. The 
Jew of Nechemiah's time, 430 B. C, would perhaps have ac- 
knowledged Jehoah as his deity and claimed that he was deity 
of his town, but the Decalogue itself recognizes that there are 
other gods, and yet, before the Jew would have permitted 
himself or his soul to be adjudged by Chemosh or Molech, 
he would have preferred the annihilation of both soul and 
body. The name Jehoah or Jah, as that of the local deity, 
had superceded that of Bes or le-Bus, perhaps called also 
David (Egypt. Tat ?) or Dad, and this evidently after the 
town was called Jerusalem, and we think after Ezra came ; 
and it was a propitious time for Jehoah, since within two 
or three centuries it was seen that the mighty deities of 
Assyria, Egypt, Phoenicia, Chaldea, Damascus, and even 
Persia, could not save those strong monarchies from over- 
throw and subjugation ; whereas Jerusalem suffered no 
serious disaster from the time of its building by Nechemiah 
till its destruction by Titus, about five centuries, and its 
strength and obscurity were perhaps a double shield from 
Persian and Macedonian; and even when the great test 
came between the Hellenic deities and Jehoah, by the re- 



336 SECULAR VIEW OF THE BIBLE. 

bellion of Maccabeus or " the true " {ha-Amo7i-ians), Jehoah 
was seen to prevail. It was then perhaps for the first time 
that Jehoah was fully realized as the name of their God by 
such people as the Galileans, though the great sanctuary of 
Carmelus at Carmel was at their door, and the Jehovist 
writings had recognized him as Aeli-Jahu or "Elijah," a 
type of Jehoah or Bes, the Phoenician Mel-ach-Aar-ath ; 
though it is more than probable there was an original 
difference between Jehoah and Jah or lah, such as that be- 
tween the names lano or ^'Juno" and lo, Leto and Latona. 
As Jehoah became more powerful, however, as in all such 
cases, he became a more passive being, a more inexorable 
and distant judge; the personification of the august and 
implacable powers of Nature, who no longer talked to men 
even in visions or dreams, and El or Ael cHai (Josh. 3: lo) 
was no longer Kerib or "near", but the majestic Aathik 
Jom-im (Dan. 7 : 9), robed in cHur or "white", to whom 
myriads ministered, and who had universal dominion, it 
would seem, yet the kingdom he gave to Chebar Aenosh 
may have been only that of the "grave" {Kibor), though 
the strange expression " all thrones were Rem-i " was per- 
haps written subsequently to the time when Rome had forbid- 
den Epiphanes to enter Egypt. Indeed, the nationalising 
of mankind would seem favorable to monotheism, since a 
common-weal would imply a common good or God, and 
clearer definitions of the future life and its assignments ; 
and hence the era of Jesus, when Rome had sway over the 
known world, was propitious for monotheism and for the 
fulfillment of Daniel's picture of the Chebar Aenosh coming 
in the "clouds" or "ships" (^Aean-an-i) ; and the Daniel 
perhaps alludes to (Gen. 4: 26) Aenosh (Egypt, "wolf"), 
in whose time men began to call on the name of Jehoah, 
while that Jesus understood Che-Bar, not as " likeness of 
the Bar "or son, but as "glory" (^Chebar) appears from 
several texts (Luke 9 : 26; 17 : 24 ; Mat. 13 : 41-43 ; 16 : 27- 
28; 24: 27-31; 25: 31-46; 26: 64, &c.), and both the 



JEWISH BELIEF AS TO THE AFTER-LIFE. 337 

Daniel and Jesus must have known the closing verses of the 
Isaiah where this Chebor is several times promised as to 
appear at the time of the new Heaven and new Earth ; and 
that this was the time of judgment the Joel (3: 12, 14) 
sufficiently indicates by its valley of Jeho-Shephat or 
"Jehoah's judgment", and by its valley of cHaruz (trans, 
"decision"), which latter name, whatever its meaning in 
the Joel, should be looked to in ascertaining the origin of 
the name ** Christ ", and his office as the judge of the quick 
and the dead (John 5 : 22-30) ; and it was the daemons, 
whom we should perhaps understand as souls or spirits, who 
were the first to recognize Jesus (Mat. 8: 28-34; Luke 4: 
33-34, 40-41; 8: 26-28), since it was cHorus the Egyptian 
divine son who guided the sacred barge, and whose duty it 
was to exclude the condemned from it. 

It will thus be seen that there is ample evidence in the 
Jewish writings to prove that that people were well abreast 
with their neighbors in ideas of the future life or of the 
state of the dead. 



CONCLUSION, 



CONCLUSION. 

THE love of men constrained us to write this little vol- 
ume. It might be termed an apology for the unortho- 
dox majority of mankind ; but no man owes another an 
apology for his belief in sacred matters. We have pointed 
out certain incidents and alleged certain reasons which may 
serve to explain why Judaism and Christianity have failed, 
after many centuries, to become even the nominal religion 
of more than one-fourth of the human species. These inci- 
dents and reasons are internal to the Bible. 

Externally, one must see that every man prefers to agree 
with his fellows, since it is to his interest to do so, and 
every man pursues what he supposes to be his interest. To 
say that one is wilfully perverse, is to say that he is 
unnatural. 

Facts and interpretations are offered herein which may 
tend to secure tolerance for those of little faith. If those 
who witnessed the Scripture prodigies and the miracles of 
Jesus did not believe, surely there should be some patience 
exercised toward those who have failed to believe without 
possessing such advantages. Besides, the zealot should re- 
member that, if any one by his unbelief should seem to 
offend God, the Supreme Being has ample power and 
numerous instruments with which to redress His wrongs 
without employing one's fellow-creature for the purpose 
(Judges 6: 31; The Acts 5 : 38-39). The mere religious 

(341) 



342 CONCLUSION. 

belief of a man will be considered in an intelligent age as 
an issue to be settled by the man with God only. 



Whatever else this volume may be, it will probably seem 
to some a slight contribution to that kinship of languages 
which is called philology. The basis of philology should 
be the consonance of words; at least among neighbor- 
ing peoples. The reader may see that we have pursued 
this method. And this method shuts out as a critic of the 
earlier and major portion of this book all who are ignorant 
of the Hebrew language ; as are also shut out those who 
are unfamiliar with contemporary creeds. Whosoever as- 
sails that portion without possessing these qualifications 
would find that he needs the Shibbol-eth of the Sibyl. 



Withal, even in its English or canonic translation, we 
assert the Bible to be true ; true to the ideals of very many 
millions. In mechanism that part or piece is true which 
works in harmony or adjustment with the other parts. 
Human ideals must alter — social mechanism must change — 
ere one can be heard to say the Bible is not true. 

The religious mind which refuses to accept the Bible and 
Judaism and Christianity can only be said to have different 
ideals. The intellectual mind which fails to accept them 
can only be charged with having a different standard of 
reasoning from that of those who do accept them. Every- 
one should be tolerant and patient. It is quite likely that 
those who now differ as to these ideals and standards will 
be in a position to know more about them a hundred years 
hence. 



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